Taller buildings, higher density recommended for Summerside housing

Summerside will have to create more of a mix of housing density to make homes more attainable in the city, according to a report by the mayor's task force on attainable housing.

There were 30 recommendations in the report, which was presented at a Summerside special council meeting Tuesday night. One recommendation includes reviewing bylaws for regulatory changes to support housing supply, such as increasing allowable building height, density and variety of housing.

Summerside Mayor Dan Kutcher said the next step is to put another team together.

"Now we will get staff to put together an implementation team and that's the next project to implement this. This will form a made-in-Summerside housing strategy that will be integrated into our official plan," he said.

The city is ready to zone for higher density too, Kutcher said.

"We have been doing that. We've got a lot of higher density development happening right now in the city. As I said in council I think we have over 400 units in construction. We have a lot of apartment buildings," he said.

"We do need more varied development here in the city. We need to make sure that we are building the right housing we need today and we are going to need in the future."

Building housing density is a key component of accessing money through the federal Housing Accelerator Fund.

At Tuesday night's meeting city staff highlighted some of the needs to access that funding, which includes automatic right of way for four-unit builds. Kutcher said the city is willing to allow that.

"We have seen that before, we heard that from our housing task force, and now we are being asked to explore that from the minister," he said.

"That doesn't mean there are going to be four units all over the place — and there will be some areas where technically that won't be viable — but we need to make sure we have the right types of housing for people and it's not just singular zoned housing across the city."

Council will look at the application for federal housing funding at a later date and decide on approving it, Kutcher said.

Creating a community outreach centre in Summerside was another recommendation from the mayor's task force.

"We certainly have a growing vulnerable population here in our community and we are seeing that across P.E.I. and across our country," Kutcher said.