Sarnia is poised to receive more money under Ontario’s housing-target program.
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After smashing last year’s 73-unit target — Sarnia added 254 units in 2023 and received $400,000 — the city already has exceeded its target for 2024, according to provincial tracking.
Sarnia’s tally is 102 units so far this year, according to ontario.ca/page/tracking-housing-supply-progress.
That’s nearly 123 per cent of the city’s provincially assigned 83-unit goal.
“We’re eligible to receive between 80 per cent and the 125 per cent of the allocated $800,000,” depending on performance, said city treasurer Kristen McGill.
That works out to between $600,000 and $1 million, she said.
How much money Sarnia will receive exactly isn’t yet clear, said Steve Henschel, the city’s communications manager.
New long-term care units and existing properties converted to residential also count in the total, he said.
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Sarnia has pledged to start 1,000 units by 2031part of the province’s 1.5-million-unit plan.
The amount of money cities receive from development charges was curtailed in recent years under the provincial More Homes Built Faster Act, including exemptions for affordable housing projects.
Sarnia was one among 50 municipalities extended strong mayor powers to help it achieve its housing targets and to allow access to building faster fund dollars as compensation for development charge losses, Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley has said.
City hall, meanwhile, also is making plans for how to spend the $400,000 it received after 2023’s results.
A report coming to council Monday suggests putting the funds toward an estimated $20.6-million, 1.5-kilometer Wellington Street extension project.
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The project that would extend the road and water main to Blackwell Side Road is one of the keys to unlocking more housing in Sarnia’s Development Area 2, a 570-hectare (1,408-acre) parcel bounded by London and Confederation lines, and Modeland Road and Blackwell.
Sarnia also recently received a $7.9-million provincial grant for the project, for which environmental assessment work is underway.
That housing enabling water systems fund grant money has to be spent by March 31, 2027.
If council approves the plan, the building faster fund dollars from 2023 and about $183,000 of the grant would go toward detailed design work for the Wellington Street project, Henschel said.
“It’s something we’re certainly looking at advancing,” he said about the project, noting budget details for 2025 are still pending and subject to council deliberations.
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