An Innerkip seniors building hopes to expand by another 16 apartments
By Mark Schadenberg
The County of Oxford has announced its
willing to possibly sell some of its real estate assets, including
vacant land, to build more affordable housing locally.
Oxford County, according to a story in
the Woodstock Sentinel-Review below, realizes that some of its land
inventory may not be suitable for a residential use due to zoning or
other locational issues, so the county would sell these parcels at
market value and convert the dollars into an increased budget
(allocated to the department's reserve fund for upcoming approved
projects) for affordable housing. This would be a county-wide
initiative and not just a move to enhance residential opportunities in
Woodstock. However, the story adds that the vacancy rate in Woodstock
and Tillsonburg is much lower than in Ingersoll.
This plan will obviously also create
employment in the construction trades sector of the economy.
The county's director of human services
(not sure I like the department name) is Paul Beaton (pictured) and he is the
focal point of a video on the Oxford website which discusses many
alternatives or options for creating social housing, including
re-purposing older buildings. The current renovation of a former
church at 34 Riddell Street in Woodstock is an example of this, where
both private sector and not-for-profit groups are involved in
creating affordable living spaces and in-turn these developers
receive compensation for their tenants earning less than $30,000 per
year in a combined 'family' income. A not-for-profit example is the
massive refurbishment at 18 VanSittart in Woodstock by Indwell.
A few years ago, a church at 25
Winniett Street in Woodstock (Multani Management) was converted to
apartments with many of them designated as below 'market rents'.
There was also brand new construction
of stackable townhouses at 320 Dundas in Woodstock – built about 10
years ago.
Clippings from County of Oxford agenda
The May 13 agenda for county council
had four separate proposals / bylaws on the docket pertaining to
Beaton's department, including adding 16 affordable seniors
apartments (12 1-bedroom and 4 2-bedroom units are planned) to the
Innerkip multi-residential project located at 30 Balsam Street. The
county's contribution would be $688,000. Currently, the Balsam
apartment building consists of 29 units.
Meanwhile, the surplus plan report on
the agenda was 5 pages long, but it did not specify any particular
Oxford-owned land or buildings ideal for such re-purposing or
allocated for a 'for sale' sign.
The so-called Housing First Policy must
be studied and approved by county council, so it will be interesting
to watch this item as it re-appears on future agendas.
LINKS:
Mark
Schadenberg, Sales
Representative
Senior
Real Estate Specialist (SRES designation)
Royal
LePage Triland Realty
757
Dundas St, Woodstock
www.wesellwoodstock.com
(519)
537-1553, cell or text
Email:
mschadenberg@rogers.com
Twitter:
markroyallepage
Facebook:
Mark Schadenberg, Royal LePage Triland
Discussion
. . . Direction . . . Determination . . . Destination
No comments:
Post a Comment