An innovative $400-million housing development proposed for the east end is a "poster candidate" for city building, according to Coun. Sam Merulla.
A report going to Thursday's Emergency and Community Services committee provides the clearest picture to date of how the city will leverage incentives to replace an aging portfolio of subsidized housing and create a mixed-income neighbourhood around the former Roxborough Park School.
"This will change the entire face of the east end," said Merulla, councillor for Ward 4. "It will have a ripple effect clear across the city."
The proposed development in the area around Reid Avenue and Lang Street is a partnership between the city and Roxborough Park Inc. (RPI), a consortium made up of Carriage Gate Homes, Effort Trust and UrbanCore Solutions.
RPI purchased the closed Roxborough Park School property for $4.13 million in 2016 with plans to build housing on the 4.3 acre site.
Since then, the city has been trying to iron out a partnership with the consortium that would spread the development on to an adjacent eight-acre parcel of land owned by CityHousing Hamilton that's currently the site of 91 aging subsidized townhouse units, and 16 units for seniors.
The expanded development would include more than 600 new units, split almost evenly between rental apartment units in three towers and townhouses that would be offered for sale.
CityHousing Hamilton will own and operate one of the apartment towers, which will include 73 subsidized units and 30 non-subsidized units. There will be 46 one-bedroom units, nine two-bedrooms, 28 three-bedrooms and 20 four-bedroom units.
Because the city is required to maintain the same number of subsidized units, 18 subsidized units are going to be transferred to another housing provider. The city has identified Indwell as a possible partner.
The remaining seven acres of CityHousing Hamilton land will be sold to RPI at fair market value based on a third-party appraisal.
To help stimulate affordable home ownership, about two-thirds of the new townhouses are going to be offered for sale at a maximum of $397,000, which is considered to be 10 per cent below market price for that area.
Eligible buyers would have to satisfy certain conditions, such as being first-time home buyers, a maximum household income likely around $120,000, and they can't own other property. With federal incentives in place for first-time home buyers, the cost of the units could end up below $360,000.
The city will waive development charges for those units offered at $397,000, which equates to about $35,000 per townhouse unit.
If the developer doesn't follow through with a reduced price on a unit where the development charge has been waived, a clause will be included that allows the city to claw back the development charge.
The city is expecting to waive about $10.5 million in development charges for the project along with another $3.9 million for cash-in-lieu waivers for parkland.
But the city is also expecting the development, when completed, will generate more than $2 million a year in new property tax revenue from the sites, which generated no tax revenue previously as institutional land.
"We took a bad news scenario — the closing of the school — and actively pursued something there that would enhance the neighbourhood," said Merulla.
Ed John, the city's director of housing services, said the key part of the project is the plan to integrate a wide mix of incomes throughout the new units.
"We didn't want to be criticized for creating a ghetto," said John. "If we just intensified this with 600 deep affordable units, I think we would have had some criticism about pushing people with less economic means into a poor part of Hamilton.
"What we wanted to do was create an almost invisible income threshold that goes throughout the development," John added. "There's a mixture of income that really breaks down that stigma."
source:
$400-million Roxborough Park development a catalyst for east end/
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