City fees are squeezing small developers out of rental housing
François Latreille, a small ByWard Market developer, says city charges are making low-rise developments impossible to build. And he has the expenses list to show it.
By Bruce Deachman, Ottawa Citizen
Published Jul 11, 2025 | Last updated 55 minutes ago | 12 minute read
François Latreille is doing exactly what this city desperately wants and needs: He’s building attractive infill homes on a very human scale, adding mid-density housing in a way that doesn’t overshadow its neighbourhood or clash with existing heritage.
Or, rather, that’s what he WOULD be doing, if only City Hall would make it a bit easier.
As things stand, though, he says the development charges and other fees the city is demanding from builders make projects like his impossible. His project, he concedes, may well be dead.
“Most rental apartments in Ottawa come from low-rise buildings of four storeys or less,” he says. “But city development costs are halting new projects in this category. Under the city’s current policies, only high-rise buildings are viable. Developments under 20 units are not financially viable.
“In essence, these fees are killing rental housing development for most small developers.”
That’s a shame. Alongside the hats he wears as an engineer and management consultant, Latreille’s role as a small developer in the ByWard Market perfectly suits his passion for livable, walkable neighbourhoods. It might seem trite to say that he builds the kind of housing he would want in his own neighbourhood, but that’s exactly what he’s done: Two of the trio of infill condominium projects he designed and built under his Domaines du Marché brand 15 to 20 years ago are on St. Andrew Street, where he lives. The third, at 11 units the largest of the three, is on Guigues Street, a block away. Two of the projects won City of Ottawa heritage awards.
Coincidentally, I recently chanced upon a neighbour of Latreille’s whom I know: Lowertown Community Association president Sylvie Bigras. “Are you writing about his latest project?” she asked. “What François brings to this neighbourhood is exactly what it needs.”
And yet.
Latreille’s latest plan is to purchase a pair of rundown duplexes on St. Andrew Street, near Sussex Drive, and turn them into a four-storey, 16-unit building comprised of two- and three-bedroom apartments.
One of the houses would be demolished, although the proposed new structure would maintain its ghostly resemblance. The front third of the other duplex, a 140-year-old red brick house, would be saved and incorporated into the project.
Features of the project, which has an estimated hard-costs budget of $5.25 million, read like a checklist of things we should hope for in all new developments: Wheelchair access. A rooftop garden. Underground parking. An elevator. One hundred per cent electric. Rainwater harvesting. High-efficiency heat pumps. Energy-efficient design. Two of the units would be affordable. Construction would employ First Nations and Inuit workers hired through the Aboriginal Futures Program to provide on-the-job training.
But Latreille will first need to fork out a lot of cash — somewhere in the neighbourhood of $700,000 — before the city will green-light the project and issue him a building permit, itself a $28,000 portion of that $700K.
It’s simply too much, he says. The project became unworkable when city costs crossed the $330,000 threshold.
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https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local...sing-city-fees
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