As is often the case, Belleville council spent considerable time Wednesday discussing housing.
Councillor Paul Carr made a motion to have the province force home builders to divulge what their costs are to build a residential unit.
Carr says municipalities have done their part to pave the way for more housing and that it was high time that developers provided information to help solve the affordability problem.
He told council municipalities were being seen as “whipping posts” by both the province and the building sector and “we don’t even build houses!”
Carr said council had eased up on planning/zoning restrictions to allow for more housing and paid for studies on development charges to provide detailed information on infrastructure costs caused by new housing projects, however, there was no information coming from builders about their actual costs.
Carr suggested land speculation in the private sector was a major contributor to the affordability problem. He cited an example of a developer asking for and receiving a property rezoning to allow a “grand” housing project.
Almost immediately after receiving the rezoning the land was put up for sale for $29 million. It has been sold but the selling price is not known and the seller was not identified.
“There’s a generation coming behind us that is not going to be able to afford a place to live so as we don’t challenge the status quo on this side get ready for people to continue to fall off the housing spectrum.”
Most on council, while thinking Carr’s idea had some merit, agreed with Councillor Garnet Thompson.
“We cannot ask entrepreneurs, whether it’s housing, a pair of pants, coffee, whatever it is, we cannot ask them to supply a cost for every single item. That’s intruding in their business.”
Councillors Carr and Kathryn Brown supported the motion.
Voting against were councillors Thompson, Barb Enright-Miller, Chris Malette, Margaret Seu, and Mayor Neil Ellis.
Below is the motion word-for-word.
