Canada/A strategy to reach Sudbury's target of 3,800 housing units by 2031
The City of Greater Sudbury is preparing its housing supply strategy. A draft of this strategy was presented to City Council in January, and a final version will be tabled by the end of June 2024.
A first virtual information session was held on Thursday afternoon.
Citizens were invited to comment on the first draft of this strategy, which aims to ensure that current and future residents of Greater Sudbury have access to housing choices that meet their needs at various stages of their lives and are affordable, regardless of their income, according to the City's website.
In this information session, Melissa Riou, Senior Planner for the City of Greater Sudbury, presented a summary of the elements of this strategy.
Among other things, she explained that the goal is to build 3,800 housing units in Greater Sudbury by 2031.
This figure is in line with Ontario's target of 1.5 million housing units over the same period. Building permits were issued for 1,132 units, or about 30% of the target.
Statistics Canada data show that the population of the City of Greater Sudbury grew by more than 8,000 between 2001 and 2021.
This is in contrast to the other four major northern cities, Thunder Bay, Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay, where the population has declined since 2001.
According to Melissa Riou, the City of Greater Sudbury has a vacancy rate of 1.6%, well below the 5% that would be considered healthy. The draft strategy also points to a growing demand for community housing, particularly one-bedroom units.
The strategy for securing Greater Sudbury's housing supply targets 17 areas of interest, including access to housing, policies on secondary suites (e.g. a basement apartment in a residence), and zoning.
We also want to increase the number of downtown residents and review the city's vacant land strategy.
Residents can submit their comments until March 8 on the À toi la parole web platform (New Window).
Source: ici.radio-canada.ca
