Today I found out about this page on the City of Winnipeg website:
https://www.winnipeg.ca/building-dev...celerator-fund
This is mostly related to the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), but part of the city's HAF application was a promise to rewrite the zoning bylaw.
Back in December 2023, it was announced that Winnipeg would be receiving $122 million through the federal government's HAF program. Here is a news article about that funding:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manit...ment-1.7065380
The City of Winnipeg webpage shows that the funding will be going towards 8 different initiatives:
1. Capital Grant Incentive Program
2. Rapid Zoning Bylaw Amendments
3. Rapid Amendments to Local Area Plans
4. Land Enhancement Office
5. Concierge for Affordable Housing
6. Infrastructure Support Program to Increase Residential Density
7. Digitize and Facilitate Faster Development and Permit Approvals
8. Housing Needs Assessment
I will describe each of the 8 initiatives below in general terms. There are also more formal descriptions on the City of Winnipeg website using the first link in this post.
1. Capital Grants Incentive Program
In May 2024, the City of Winnipeg announced that $25 million of the $122 million would be going towards the "Capital Grant Incentive Program." There were 66 applications for the Capital Grant Incentive Program, as per the article below. Not all applicants will be receiving funding, the successful applicants will be announced in early September. I have heard that there may be a second round of funding/applications for the Capital Grant Incentive Program, but that has not been confirmed yet.
https://winnipegsun.com/news/local-n...s-expectations
2. Rapid Zoning Bylaw Amendments
Essentially, because the full rewrite of the zoning bylaw likely won't be completed until 2027, the City of Winnipeg is planning to make certain amendments to the current zoning bylaw to speed up housing construction before the new zoning bylaw takes effect. As far as I understand, City Council will be voting on zoning changes related to "Malls and Corridors" this fall and 4 units as-of-right city-wide (subject to lot size, setbacks, height limits, etc.) next spring. I'm not sure if there are any another zoning amendments planned for next year.
3. Rapid Amendments to Local Area Plans
Because the City of Winnipeg will be rewriting the entire zoning bylaw, all of the Local Area Plans will have to be updated so they conform to the new zoning bylaw.
4. Land Enhancement Office
As far as I can tell, the Land Enhancement Office will be a group of City of Winnipeg employees that will identify city-owned land that can/should be sold to non-profit developers to build new affordable housing on.
5. Concierge for Affordable Housing
The Affordable Housing Concierge will be a City of Winnipeg employee who will help developers/non-profit organizations plan their applications for new affordable housing projects.
6. Infrastructure Support Program to Increase Residential Density
As far as I understand, this initiative would be money set aside for infrastructure upgrades to allow for more infill housing such as paving backlanes, upgrading sewer pipes, etc. I have not been able to find any details on this initiative yet.
7. Digitize and Facilitate Faster Development and Permit Approvals
Basically the City of Winnipeg is planning to upgrade some of their permit application software. It sound like they'll be updating the online permit application portal to have more features and just generally be more useful.
8. Housing Needs Assessment
The federal government requires that all cities receiving HAF funding conduct a Housing Needs Assessment. This is essentially a report that counts how much housing we have, what condition it's in, and how much housing we will need in the future.
In summary, the above 8 initiatives are how the City of Winnipeg will be spending the $122 million it is receiving from the federal government through the Housing Accelerator Fund.