City extends financial incentives to more outlying communities

More properties throughout Greater Sudbury are to become eligible for municipal financial incentives in a newly reconfigured plan targeting primarily market housing.

Speaking in favour of the Greater Sudbury Community Improvement Plan, Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin said, “We are an amalgamated city, and this recognizes that.”

Fortin spoke to local journalists following Monday’s planning committee meeting of city council, at which she voted in favour of the plan which amalgamates the Strategic Core Areas Community Improvement Plan, the Affordable Housing Community Improvement Plan and the Brownfield Strategy and Community Improvement Plan.

In addition to combining existing financial incentive programs, the Greater Sudbury Community Improvement Plan adds the core areas of several communities as “nodes” in the plan’s maps.

Azilda, Coniston, Dowling, Garson, Hanmer, Wahnapitae, Walden, Val Caron and more of Chelmsford than previously included (stretching farther south) are now classified as “nodes,” which makes them eligible for various financial incentives, primarily as it relates to building market housing (they were already eligible for affordable housing incentives).

“Any new housing that we get is needed, so any time we add anywhere on the continuum it helps,” said Fortin, who represents Azilda on city council.

These new nodes will join existing nodes in Capreol, Copper Cliff, downtown Sudbury, the Flour Mill, Kathleen Street, Levack, Lively and the smaller existing node in Chelmsford.

Within nodes, property owners who are building at least three new residential units can apply for grants of $20 per square foot ($20,000 per unit, whichever is lesser), plus rebate fees and a grant of up to $7,500 toward other costs, such as professional studies and designs.

Developers of these residential units can also apply for rebates on building code applications, including building permits. 

Although the new plan expands the footprint of eligible properties for certain incentives via nodes, city senior planner Ed Landry clarified to media following Tuesday’s meeting that the city’s annual budget allocation will remain $250,000 until such time as city council passes a motion indicating otherwise.

This annual allotment is placed in a reserve until successful applicants make good on what they’ve pledged to do with the funds, meaning that not all funds approved by city council members over the years have been expended. A key example of this are the funds city council approved for Brewer’s Lofts, which the developer did not receive after not following through with the condominium project at the old Northern Breweries building on Lorne Street.

The reserve fund currently totals approximately $900,000, Landry said. 

(City council can also OK funds in excess of this budgeted amount, which is what they did by approving $1.7 million in incentives late last year toward Panoramic Properties’ development of the downtown Scotia Tower into residential units.)

In addition to amalgamating existing community improvement plans and adding more nodes, several changes have been included in the Greater Sudbury Community Improvement Plan.

Within the new plan, facade improvement grants (50 per cent of costs up to a maximum of $20,000, applicable to nodes and heritage buildings) will be limited to commercial or mixed-use properties, and can only be applied to the front side of buildings (currently, any public-facing side can be applied for funding toward).

The city has also added a limit of one round of applications per property, a move which city council requested in reaction to the Knox Hall development wherein the owners/tenants applied for and received two rounds of applications, including one the property owner applied for and one submitted by the tenant. Both rounds saw the applications hit maximum-allotted amounts.

The city’s slate of financial incentives are continually reviewed and updated every five years or so, Landry said, noting, “things come up where we get direction from council to adjust these things, to stop accepting certain applications or look for new or different programs.”

The planning committee of city council unanimously approved the new Greater Sudbury Community Improvement Plan during Monday’s meeting, and city council as a whole will vote on whether to ratify this decision at Tuesday night’s meeting.

Present during Monday’s meeting was chair and Ward 10 Coun. Fern Cormier, Ward 6 Coun. René Lapierre, Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin and Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann.

If the Greater Sudbury Community Improvement Plan is ratified on Tuesday, Landry said a public appeal period will be initiated after which the new incentives could be in place by September.

Until then, Landry said the city’s existing slate of municipal incentives can still be applied for.

The public portion of Tuesday’s city council meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. It can be viewed in-person in council chambers at Tom Davies Square or livestreamed by clicking here. Although the bylaw associated with the Greater Sudbury Community Improvement Plan is up for a vote during the meeting, it’ll only be discussed if a city council member pulls it aside for debate.

Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.