Belleville requests changes to the Building Faster Fund

Belleville urges the Ontario government to revise how municipal performance is measured under the Building Faster Fund, arguing that municipalities should be assessed based on housing approvals – not housing starts, which are outside their control.

The motion criticizes provincial inaction in compelling private developers to build and calls for “Use it or Lose it” zoning rules to curb land speculation. It also urges the province to set and enforce housing start targets for the private sector. The motion passed 6–2 and will be forwarded to provincial officials and municipal associations.

Belleville has taken considerable measures to assist with increasing housing supply, province must build accountabilities and stringent guidelines to get the private sector to build: Councillor Paul Carr

We received a letter from the Quinte Home Builders [Association] expressing concern over this portion of the [Building Faster Fund] motion and I have actually met with the Quinte Home Builders earlier this summer and I made it very clear to them that if there are obstacles in the way of which Council has control over I as chair of the Planning Advisory Committee are willing to take those on, bring them forward to council, and knock those obstacles off so that building can occur.

I did also make it very clear that on the flip side, the expectation is we need builders to build, we are under-supplied across our community and right across the nation quite frankly.

Having said that, the home builders did write a letter to Mayor and Council and in it, it says that they understand the motion includes a request “to punish developers and builders who don’t build”.

Now I did respond to the Quinte Home Builders and members of council were copied on that, again not for the purpose of debate, but to clear that up. I really want to clear it up in the sense that, as I look back, those statements were made by two news agencies who reported or filed on the story, but as members here know, and I did provide a copy to the Quinte Home Builders, at no time had I said the words punishing builders or developers for not building. It was not in the motion, and two weeks ago as procedurally introducing a motion or notice of motion, there is no debate, so there’s no opportunity to make such comments. So I just want to clear that up here to make sure that there is no ill will in that regard.

We heard earlier the CAO say that in his time since 1998 maybe the city of Belleville has built five houses. I’d like to hear more about where those houses were built and why they were built, but clearly over that period of time we’re just not in the house building business.

I think sometimes in the last few years I think the municipalities, we haven’t been good at defending ourselves. You turn on the news and senior levels of government, opposition parties, we become the whipping post. We’re the gatekeepers, we’re the people that stop building from happening. If they would just get out of the way, everything would be so much better, right?

We need to understand that municipalities are following provincial processes. I think it needs to be set out loud, the Planning Act is provincial legislation. The Official Plan is per Section 16 of the Planning Act – provincial legislation. Zoning Bylaw is Section 34 of the Planning Act – provincial legislation. Plan of Subdivision Section 51 of the Planning Act. Municipal Class Environmental Assessment is derived from the Environmental Assessment Act – Provincial Legislation. The Building Code is a regulation of the Building Code Act, the Building Permit is derived by the Building Code which is regulation under the Building Code Act, and the Occupancy Permit derived by the Building Code and is a regulation of the Building Code Act. All that provincial rules that municipalities must operationalize, so when the province talks about red tape, it’s their red tape, we’re simply holding it because they don’t give us a choice.

We’ve taken considerable measures to assist with increasing housing supply as it relates to the process and approvals.

We started that with the Housing Summit last term, but I want to just kind of blow the horn here in terms of what our planning staff and the different departments do in terms of moving things along.

The city’s initiated pre-consultation meetings to provide feedback on what’s required for a complete application as well as providing a list of outside agencies etc that will need approvals.

We’ve hired additional staff within the Approvals Department, we’ve worked towards modernizing key planning documents including the Official Plan, we’re working on the Zoning Bylaw, we’re looking at a corridor study of Bell Boulevard and North Front.

We’ve also looked at the West Belleville or the Loyalist Secondary Plan. We have approval for reduced parking guidelines, substantial completion of the the Zoning Bylaw, which is taking all those zones into three Urban residential zones which is a leading initiative for Ontario municipalities, we’re actually leading something here.

Development of a development manual to assist in defining processes and community expectations to get further buy-in. So in other words, if everybody knows how things are going to be developed, the less likely they’re going to be surprised and come here and object.

Hosting quarterly meetings with the Quinte Home Builders. The Home Builders have asked me to attend those, I made it very clear when I met with them that as an elected official I will not step into the operational realm. That line is there for a reason. Certainly we can have meetings, but when this is an operational meeting between staff and a stakeholder as an elected official I cannot be in that room.

Implementation of monthly meetings between development engineer and the developers engineer for the subdivision lands that have draft approval.

It goes on and on, and we’re looking at Infrastructure Phasing Plan and a Background Study.

We’re doing our part in terms of moving the needle for more housing.

But we still have delays in construction, I want to touch on that very briefly because as much as we are hitting our targets, and we will hit our targets I believe, we still are slow.

A very prominent address is 40 Yeomans Street, the old Ben Bleaker property at the North End. Originally we zoned the north half of that as one block in November 2021. Nothing happened, I’ve heard that the property has sold and then has now been repurchased and the north half has now been rezoned into two blocks in February 2023. There’s no site plan application to date, so that land sits.

In 2019, a capital budget item was walked on in the amount of $1.8 million dollars, adding the Avenue Road Sanitary Sewer Extension Project and it was funded from the Sanitary Sewer Reserve fund at $1.8 million and I know Councillor Thompson brings up water and wastewater all the time and you know this is a significant amount of money that goes towards the Village of Avonlea. The Village of Avonlea was approved for zoning for 750 homes. Right now, with the sanitary sewer leading that way, and the rezoning, that property is now up for sale, you can look on the listings locally, for $29 million dollars. So is that building or is that land speculation? It sits.

Another one is 660 Sidney St, two apartment buildings just near Battlefield. Building permits were actually requested pre-COVID and then were suggested or were asked to put on hold, and and now they’ve just been issued as of July 28th, and let me tell you as of this date that ground is as flat as flat can be. There is no development.

While builders have said – and I’ve got a long list here and I won’t go into it – they say they’re building, but yet we can point to examples where we’ve done what we have to do, or we’ve done what we can do, to the point where there’s nothing coming forward from a developer or a builder to move those approvals on, that’s a concern.

… So when I cite examples where we’re approving things, but yet it sits, that’s a problem in terms of the permits. In essence, we are getting evaluated, if you will, based on what’s being done in the private sector to get it to a building permit. That’s a concern. We should be evaluated on what we can control, not what others can control.

In a letter that the minister of Municipal Affairs provided you Mayor Ellis on August 22nd and it was shared with us on our agenda, it says: “Ontario will be consulting with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario the Housing Supply Action Plan implementation team and the City of Toronto on the program design details of the Building Faster Fund including eligible expenses and ways to track progress”.

They’ve announced it, they throw some dollars at it, now they’re going to design the program. What I’m suggesting with this motion here is is that we just get out in front of it, and that they actually design the program how it really should intended to be, and that’s measure the municipality for what they control, and what they can’t control, build accountabilities to the private sector.

The big talk right now is is inflation and yes, certainly interest rates are high, but interest rates have been high before. What the difference is, is the principle on these houses is astronomical. For example, you know on the resale market we’re seeing houses and I know an example right now where the house sold, it’s being rented, and then there’s a sub lease on the rental. Students are living there, so they’re overpaying the true costs, both the owner and the renter get an income.

Then we have a newly constructed two-bedroom two-bath home, 1400 square feet, unfinished basement in our city selling for $679,000. It’s not the interest it’s the problem, it’s the astronomical principle on that property that is making it unaffordable.

If we don’t see an increase in supply, and I don’t disagree with what the provincial government’s saying, what I have an issue with, and what I think we need to look at, is do we throw the suggestions forward in terms of how to make this program fair.

The parliament in 2019 passed the National Housing Strategy and they’ve made housing right. We have a legal obligation, I would argue a moral obligation, to ensure that we’re doing everything we possibly can to get houses built, but we need the private sector to build as well.

I think we’re at a turning point where the days of buying real estate because you don’t want to invest your money in the markets or in the stock markets and just build your wealth through real estate, that’s going to come to an end. Everybody’s sitting on that retirement nest egg if you will. Well if I sell my home you know that will fund my retirement.

Well who’s going to buy your home? The next generation coming behind us cannot afford the down payment and the mortgage payment for a house, so when we see people wandering our street with no place to go, and no place to live it is only going to get worse.

I think we’re all singing the same song in terms of building more houses, but we can’t play footsie around the corners in terms of how do we get this done. I’m simply suggesting here that the province needs to measure us – and we can certainly be accountable, for what we can control – but we need the provincial government to put in stringent guidelines to get the private sector to build.

The next thing that needs to happen quite frankly and it’s not in this motion, but I think it’s important to say, is that the senior levels of government need to invest considerably in affordable housing.

If we don’t and allow this so-called market to dictate it problem is, is if the market price is this high and we’ve seen it over the pandemic, everybody’s buying this high. The market doesn’t want to buy it, ask any buyer do you really want to pay $700,000, or would you rather pay $400,000? When you hear the private sector say: “well this is what the market’s calling for”, well if you set the bar there and you’ve got a scarcity commodity in terms of a place to live, then that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

What I’m asking here is that we just look at the program, have the province – look they’re suggesting even in their own letter the Minister is going to ask AMO in terms of thoughts on program design – this is simply suggesting that we throw in two cents here in terms of providing input from the City of Belleville’s perspective on this still to be designed fund.

Councillor Paul Carr, City of Belleville

We received a letter from the Quinte Home Builders [Association] expressing concern over this portion of the [Building Faster Fund] motion and I have actually met with the Quinte Home Builders earlier this summer and I made it very clear to them that if there are obstacles in the way of which Council has control over I as chair of the Planning Advisory Committee are willing to take those on, bring them forward to council, and knock those obstacles off so that building can occur.

I did also make it very clear that on the flip side, the expectation is we need builders to build, we are under-supplied across our community and right across the nation quite frankly.

Having said that, the home builders did write a letter to Mayor and Council and in it, it says that they understand the motion includes a request “to punish developers and builders who don’t build”.

Now I did respond to the Quinte Home Builders and members of council were copied on that, again not for the purpose of debate, but to clear that up. I really want to clear it up in the sense that, as I look back, those statements were made by two news agencies who reported or filed on the story, but as members here know, and I did provide a copy to the Quinte Home Builders, at no time had I said the words punishing builders or developers for not building. It was not in the motion, and two weeks ago as procedurally introducing a motion or notice of motion, there is no debate, so there’s no opportunity to make such comments. So I just want to clear that up here to make sure that there is no ill will in that regard.

We heard earlier the CAO say that in his time since 1998 maybe the city of Belleville has built five houses. I’d like to hear more about where those houses were built and why they were built, but clearly over that period of time we’re just not in the house building business.

I think sometimes in the last few years I think the municipalities, we haven’t been good at defending ourselves. You turn on the news and senior levels of government, opposition parties, we become the whipping post. We’re the gatekeepers, we’re the people that stop building from happening. If they would just get out of the way, everything would be so much better, right?

We need to understand that municipalities are following provincial processes. I think it needs to be set out loud, the Planning Act is provincial legislation. The Official Plan is per Section 16 of the Planning Act – provincial legislation. Zoning Bylaw is Section 34 of the Planning Act – provincial legislation. Plan of Subdivision Section 51 of the Planning Act. Municipal Class Environmental Assessment is derived from the Environmental Assessment Act – Provincial Legislation. The Building Code is a regulation of the Building Code Act, the Building Permit is derived by the Building Code which is regulation under the Building Code Act, and the Occupancy Permit derived by the Building Code and is a regulation of the Building Code Act. All that provincial rules that municipalities must operationalize, so when the province talks about red tape, it’s their red tape, we’re simply holding it because they don’t give us a choice.

We’ve taken considerable measures to assist with increasing housing supply as it relates to the process and approvals.

We started that with the Housing Summit last term, but I want to just kind of blow the horn here in terms of what our planning staff and the different departments do in terms of moving things along.

The city’s initiated pre-consultation meetings to provide feedback on what’s required for a complete application as well as providing a list of outside agencies etc that will need approvals.

We’ve hired additional staff within the Approvals Department, we’ve worked towards modernizing key planning documents including the Official Plan, we’re working on the Zoning Bylaw, we’re looking at a corridor study of Bell Boulevard and North Front.

We’ve also looked at the West Belleville or the Loyalist Secondary Plan. We have approval for reduced parking guidelines, substantial completion of the the Zoning Bylaw, which is taking all those zones into three Urban residential zones which is a leading initiative for Ontario municipalities, we’re actually leading something here.

Development of a development manual to assist in defining processes and community expectations to get further buy-in. So in other words, if everybody knows how things are going to be developed, the less likely they’re going to be surprised and come here and object.

Hosting quarterly meetings with the Quinte Home Builders. The Home Builders have asked me to attend those, I made it very clear when I met with them that as an elected official I will not step into the operational realm. That line is there for a reason. Certainly we can have meetings, but when this is an operational meeting between staff and a stakeholder as an elected official I cannot be in that room.

Implementation of monthly meetings between development engineer and the developers engineer for the subdivision lands that have draft approval.

It goes on and on, and we’re looking at Infrastructure Phasing Plan and a Background Study.

We’re doing our part in terms of moving the needle for more housing.

But we still have delays in construction, I want to touch on that very briefly because as much as we are hitting our targets, and we will hit our targets I believe, we still are slow.

A very prominent address is 40 Yeomans Street, the old Ben Bleaker property at the North End. Originally we zoned the north half of that as one block in November 2021. Nothing happened, I’ve heard that the property has sold and then has now been repurchased and the north half has now been rezoned into two blocks in February 2023. There’s no site plan application to date, so that land sits.

In 2019, a capital budget item was walked on in the amount of $1.8 million dollars, adding the Avenue Road Sanitary Sewer Extension Project and it was funded from the Sanitary Sewer Reserve fund at $1.8 million and I know Councillor Thompson brings up water and wastewater all the time and you know this is a significant amount of money that goes towards the Village of Avonlea. The Village of Avonlea was approved for zoning for 750 homes. Right now, with the sanitary sewer leading that way, and the rezoning, that property is now up for sale, you can look on the listings locally, for $29 million dollars. So is that building or is that land speculation? It sits.

Another one is 660 Sidney St, two apartment buildings just near Battlefield. Building permits were actually requested pre-COVID and then were suggested or were asked to put on hold, and and now they’ve just been issued as of July 28th, and let me tell you as of this date that ground is as flat as flat can be. There is no development.

While builders have said – and I’ve got a long list here and I won’t go into it – they say they’re building, but yet we can point to examples where we’ve done what we have to do, or we’ve done what we can do, to the point where there’s nothing coming forward from a developer or a builder to move those approvals on, that’s a concern.

… So when I cite examples where we’re approving things, but yet it sits, that’s a problem in terms of the permits. In essence, we are getting evaluated, if you will, based on what’s being done in the private sector to get it to a building permit. That’s a concern. We should be evaluated on what we can control, not what others can control.

In a letter that the minister of Municipal Affairs provided you Mayor Ellis on August 22nd and it was shared with us on our agenda, it says: “Ontario will be consulting with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario the Housing Supply Action Plan implementation team and the City of Toronto on the program design details of the Building Faster Fund including eligible expenses and ways to track progress”.

They’ve announced it, they throw some dollars at it, now they’re going to design the program. What I’m suggesting with this motion here is is that we just get out in front of it, and that they actually design the program how it really should intended to be, and that’s measure the municipality for what they control, and what they can’t control, build accountabilities to the private sector.

The big talk right now is is inflation and yes, certainly interest rates are high, but interest rates have been high before. What the difference is, is the principle on these houses is astronomical. For example, you know on the resale market we’re seeing houses and I know an example right now where the house sold, it’s being rented, and then there’s a sub lease on the rental. Students are living there, so they’re overpaying the true costs, both the owner and the renter get an income.

Then we have a newly constructed two-bedroom two-bath home, 1400 square feet, unfinished basement in our city selling for $679,000. It’s not the interest it’s the problem, it’s the astronomical principle on that property that is making it unaffordable.

If we don’t see an increase in supply, and I don’t disagree with what the provincial government’s saying, what I have an issue with, and what I think we need to look at, is do we throw the suggestions forward in terms of how to make this program fair.

The parliament in 2019 passed the National Housing Strategy and they’ve made housing right. We have a legal obligation, I would argue a moral obligation, to ensure that we’re doing everything we possibly can to get houses built, but we need the private sector to build as well.

I think we’re at a turning point where the days of buying real estate because you don’t want to invest your money in the markets or in the stock markets and just build your wealth through real estate, that’s going to come to an end. Everybody’s sitting on that retirement nest egg if you will. Well if I sell my home you know that will fund my retirement.

Well who’s going to buy your home? The next generation coming behind us cannot afford the down payment and the mortgage payment for a house, so when we see people wandering our street with no place to go, and no place to live it is only going to get worse.

I think we’re all singing the same song in terms of building more houses, but we can’t play footsie around the corners in terms of how do we get this done. I’m simply suggesting here that the province needs to measure us – and we can certainly be accountable, for what we can control – but we need the provincial government to put in stringent guidelines to get the private sector to build.

The next thing that needs to happen quite frankly and it’s not in this motion, but I think it’s important to say, is that the senior levels of government need to invest considerably in affordable housing.

If we don’t and allow this so-called market to dictate it problem is, is if the market price is this high and we’ve seen it over the pandemic, everybody’s buying this high. The market doesn’t want to buy it, ask any buyer do you really want to pay $700,000, or would you rather pay $400,000? When you hear the private sector say: “well this is what the market’s calling for”, well if you set the bar there and you’ve got a scarcity commodity in terms of a place to live, then that’s exactly what’s going to happen.

What I’m asking here is that we just look at the program, have the province – look they’re suggesting even in their own letter the Minister is going to ask AMO in terms of thoughts on program design – this is simply suggesting that we throw in two cents here in terms of providing input from the City of Belleville’s perspective on this still to be designed fund.

Councillor Paul Carr, City of Belleville