Suzanne Martineau and Ben Jardine of Muskoka Community Land Trust were before Huntsville’s General Committee on October 25 to talk to councillor about a project that would see the not-for-profit organization create a phased-in 161-unit housing project on a seven-acre property owned by the Town.
Martineau told councillors the organization incorporated in 2021 and has been working on a business plan that could see shovels in the ground as early as next year if the Town agrees to transfer a seven-acre property the organization has its sights on at the top of Florence Street. The lands are ideally situated within walking distance of Huntsville’s downtown core.
She said land trust developments have been tried and proven across the country and are a way of providing much-needed housing in the community. She gave a brief overview of how a land trust would work. First, the organization would obtain the land and develop it. The land would be separated from the structures on it. “We maintain that land in perpetuity and therefore we can control pricing. We can control resale value. We remove it from the real estate market so that it’s not influenced by market fluctuation and then when we offer it affordably at the onset,” said Martineau. “We continue to offer it affordably to the target markets thereafter…”
Martineau said the organization aims to close the gap in the housing continuum. “A household who is earning between 70 and $80,000 a year cannot afford to buy a home. It can afford to buy a home around $300,000 [but]they don’t exist. There’s no rental stock. So everyone who’s out there working hard, they can’t even save for a down payment because they’re paying 50 per cent + for their shelter here in Muskoka. The housing prices are driven out of control, the barriers are great and it’s a vicious cycle that highly affects the health of our community.”
Muskoka Community Land Trust (MCLT) is made up of local community members with expertise in diverse fields. They’ve been working on a plan to create what they refer to as a sustainably affordable micro-community, one which would create much-needed homeownership opportunities, purpose-built rentals and accessible bungalows with the organizaton serving as the land steward.
They were before the committee asking for the parcel in order to start executing the housing plan, an ambitious $56M plan consisting of seven phases. You can find their draft housing plan HERE.
The plan would consist of:
- 65 townhouses for ownership and rent-to-own options
- 72 rental one-bedroom or studio units that could form part of a cooperative
- 12 accessible bungalows
- Two purpose-built rental six-plexes
“We hope the Town of Huntsville sees the value in this ambitious yet very viable business plan,” said Martineau.
Jardine explained the project to councillors and noted that MCLT had been exploring another property in that same vicinity but that the seven acres are much better. “This parcel of land is much more accommodating. In fact, we’re here proposing a plan that’s offering greater setbacks. It’s offering greater opportunity for buffering, more open land, green space, community garden, play area, more space for technical work such as stormwater management, snow storage, waste and recycling collection.”
He said the development proposed would be broken up into phases “so that we can really hit the ground running. There’s no reason with staff and council support that we couldn’t have shovels in the ground in 2024, immediately contributing to a housing solution.”
The green, blue and purple areas above would be built first and comprise townhouses designed, built and sold well below current average market sales, said Jardine.
Councillors expressed the need to tackle the housing issue in the community and welcomed the project. They also heard that Huntsville will be used as a testing ground for similar projects in other parts of Muskoka.
Municial staff was asked to formulate an agreement for the transference of the seven acres of land on the north side of Florence Street, work with MDLT on development options and return to coucil with a report.
A similar initiative which started in 2016 in the Sabrina Park area has proven to be difficult with many closed session discussions held on the issue. “Just going forward we’re going to make sure we cross our t’s and dot our i’s on this one. Land trusts are well known across Canada so they do a lot of buildings like this and they have a good plan,” said Deputy Mayor Dan Armour in a follow-up conversation with Doppler. “$300,000 homes is what we’re looking for and it’s a good entry-level for a lot of people. So I think this is a good move on our part,” said Armour also noting that while Sabrina Park is a private sector initiative, Muskoka Community Land Trust is a not-for-profit initiative.
Huntsville Mayor Nancy Alcock told Doppler she’s very excited about the initiative. “In the Sabrina Park exercise, we had all of the right intentions. We went through the right process, all of that, but it was new to us… you learn,” she said, adding that land trusts are not a new initiative. “There is a whole national association so they’ve got examples of standard legal agreements,” said Alcock, agreements which she said protect the Town’s interests as well as interests of the land trust and they’ve been tried and tested. She also noted that the land trust is a not-for-profit “so they want to achieve what we want to achieve.”
Alcock said the fact that they’re conscious about creating a community, rather than just bricks and mortar, aligns with the Town’s strategic direction. She also said the fact that their board members are as skilled as they are is also very exciting. “They’ve got all of the right ingredients,” she noted.
Alcock also emphasized that “if there’s a general nervousness in the area, I’m not saying that there is about this new Florence Street property, but people may [say]‘oh that’s a lot of units’ but it’ll still go through a planning process. So it’s not like we’re ignoring everything and just slam dunking, it still needs to go through a planning process,” she said, adding, “We want to bring people on board.”
She said she hopes the project is successful and contributes to solving the housing issue in the community.
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Allie Chisholm-Smith says
I know we need houses but this forest is really active with wildlife. It’s a really vibrant ecosystem including wetlands. We need to start building ecological corridors like this if we are to preserve the integrity of why people come here…. it’s nature, not burger Kings. Surely this amazing idea of affordable land trust homes could be pursued without mowing down another forest? Why are we building single story malls along Hanes? Why not look at density over expanse?
reuben pyette-bouillon says
This is a heavy build with very little green space. The problem is green space. We need to cut the impact of this development in half and sacrifice units for wild life. We keep pushing out wildlife and taking over habitats that is so desperately needed. Less is more.
Bev Belanger says
I think that this is a great idea for having affordable homes in the near future. My only concern is the maintenance of these homes into the future. I remember the zero lot line housing development in Bramalea and how they weren’t maintained due to affordability factors and how they deteriorated very quickly.
Ralph Cliffe says
The lands are ideally situated within walking distance of Huntsville’s downtown core.
Within walking distance to local grocery stores? Freshco is moving out.
A car will still be necessary? Any parking included with the units?
$300000 looks good. What about over run costs?
Time will tell!
Allen Markle says
It’s certainly not possible to look to our local ‘land developers’ to be of any help in alleviating the lack of affordable housing in Huntsville. I have no idea what these big projects cite as a reasonable cost to purchase or rent these new units, but it is obviously well beyond the means of a lot of, or maybe most people.
This 7 acres plot, is part of the land deeded to J. Hanes, back in the 1870’s. Back then, 7 acres was the size of a good potato/turnip patch. I imagine it is in the vicinity of the old reservoir that pressurized the town’s water system.
Now it is proposed that this 7 acres become home for as many as 400 people, although the number of units and occupants could change. Our house is located on 2 acres and by times I find that small.
As a citizen of Huntsville for my entire life, it is somewhat disconcerting, numbing, to see the wholesale destruction of the forested town of my youth. But the land ‘developer’ only sees the cash reward at the end of the carnage they visit on the land. The loss of a bit of natural habitat is not even considered. Birds and trees, and animals are simply collateral damage.
The town has experience with these low income or supported income properties, and seems to feel this one is manageable and acceptable. There are those that need the housing even if it will be one hell of a tramp up that hill. I know. I’ve done it. From all directions and there isn’t an easy one.
So I guess we and the town will have to trust this Muskoka Community Land Trust to deliver. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of options.
Best of luck Huntsville.
Paul Whillans says
Let me start with what seems like the obvious……Huntsville has no shortage of housing per se. If I read the information correctly on housing permits and dwellings built; the town has issued 2421 build permits in the 5 year period 2018 through 2022 (most current information available). During that time 1028 dwellings were built. I read this as a backlog of over 1000 permits that have not been completed…….,This represents an additional 11% added to the housing stock of Huntsville. This backlog is certainly enough (If this were Toronto, this would represent some 240,000 dwellings.)
What Huntsville needs is only “affordable housing” And here is the rub. CMHC dictates that affordable housing, is housing that consumers only 30 percent of the household income. In Huntsville the median household income is $83,000. I fed that amount into RBC’s mortgage affordability calculator with a $30,000 down payment (another issue!!!) and RBC told me that I could afford a $242,000 mortgage. As long as interest remain high, a house would seem to be off the table, for the lower half of households in Huntsville…….Please stop pretending otherwise.
What then Huntsville truly needs are affordable rentals. The bottom 25% of households (2000 households) make less than $50,000. So we need rentals lower than $1250 a month. The second quartile (another 2000 households) makes between $50,000 and $80,000, so we need another set of rentals between $1250 and $2000.
So before Huntsville gives away this incredibly valuable asset to the Muskoka Community Land Trust, dig deeper into their airy fairy proposal and ensure that the citizens and employers of Huntsville get what they need.