Investing in Housing for Windsor’s growing community
“Windsor was the top city… as having the brightest economic indicators of all two-dozen communities studied.”
– Conference Board of Canada, 2023
The City of Windsor, and surrounding region, is experiencing unpresented growth spurred by various economic development and large-scale infrastructure projects in the works. The Windsor Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) population stands at nearly 425,000 – an increase of over 17,000 from October 2020. In 2023, approximately 4,400 new residents moved to the Windsor CMA over a five month period – surpassing the total for the entirety of 2022. That data is clear; individuals, families and businesses want to be here. What’s also clear is that there are significant housing supply and affordability challenges that many first-time home buyers are now facing.
Everyone has a role to play in addressing the housing crisis impacting communities across the country. That’s why in 2022, Premier Ford and the Province of Ontario announced more than $45-million for a new Streamline Development Approval Fund to help municipalities modernize, streamline, and accelerate processes for managing and approving housing applications. The province has set targets for 29 fast-growing municipalities to ensure Ontario achieves its overall goal of building 1.5 million new homes in a decade. Windsor is on that list, and expected to help realize 13,000 new homes by 2031. That’s why the City of Windsor has encouraged everyone to take a collective approach to finding solutions to increase land supply, reduce permit processing times, remove red tape and administrative barriers, and build more homes… all as part of our efforts to deliver housing for people to live, grow and build in our community for generations to come.
“Windsorites deserve housing solutions made for Windsor. The City and City Council remain focused on innovative local solutions that will do our part to increase the supply of housing for residents while helping the province and country address a national housing crisis. Through our months-long review of municipal lands capable of supporting diverse housing developments as appropriate for Windsor, we have identified several areas that offer incredible potential. As I have stressed, and Council has supported, we are committed to increasing the supply of housing at an accelerated pace in Windsor while respecting residents and their investments, and protecting the integrity of our city’s unique and vibrant neighbourhoods as well as the crucial infrastructure that sustains it all. Through this process, I am also calling on our partners at the federal and provincial level to follow suit in identifying federally and provincially owned lands that are suitable for development, and taking the steps required to make them shovel-ready. During Windsor’s incredible growth trajectory, how we grow, how Council leads us through that growth, and how our partners support us in combatting this national crisis matters greatly.”
– Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens
Municipal Lands Ready for Development
In an ongoing effort to increase the supply of housing and meet aggressive housing targets for the community, members of City Council and members of City Administration have identified a list of municipal lands owned by the City of Windsor that are available for development. In 2023, the City began a process to review municipal lands throughout the community that could support developments aimed at addressing the housing crisis in Canada. That review identified several properties with significant and immediate potential for development covering all types of housing needs, including affordable housing and missing middle housing. These sites include:
1. Former W.D. Lowe Secondary School
874 Giles Boulevard East | Ward 4
2. Caron Avenue Parking Lot
Caron Ave Parking Lot at Caron Ave & University Ave | Ward 3
3. Pelissier Street Parking Lot
Pelissier St Parking lot between Wyandotte St W & Elliott St | Ward 3
4. Roseland Golf Club Parking Lot
455 Kennedy Drive | Ward 1
As part of the overall Housing Solutions Made for Windsor plan, the process to identify potential lands was initiated by Mayor Dilkens requesting Council colleagues to provide input and submit any properties located within their wards for consideration. Following this, Council met in-camera on February 12, 2024, to review and form consensus on the current list representing the first group of properties that are best suited, and furthest along in the planning process to achieve the goal of supporting the development of more homes, faster.
Mayor Dilkens and City Council remain committed to vital public consultation to help ensure that any development undertaken throughout this process is complementary to and respectful of the integrity of established neighbourhoods and the quality of life for residents while also benefitting surrounding areas of the community with consideration and with added amenities in some instances. Additionally, any funding brought in from the sale of land will be considered for reinvestment in adjacent amenities.
Council also remains steadfast in its commitment to taking a collective approach to finding solutions to increase land supply, remove red tape and other barriers, reduce permit processing times, and build more homes. While each of the properties being brought forward are at various stages of the approval process, and some will come online sooner than others, the City will issue Expressions of Interest as soon as each property is deemed shovel-ready. To streamline the process, a special Developer Registration site has been set up to connect the development community with these targeted opportunities and all future development opportunities through the Housing Solutions Made for Windsor plan.
The properties listed above are the first that City administration will move towards preparing for residential developments with all necessary approvals ready for development. The City will also continue to review other available municipal lands to identify further opportunities to support evolving housing needs in the community.
Roseland Golf Club Building and Parking Lot Development – Public Consultation
The first of the four properties coming up for proposals will be the Roseland Clubhouse and Parking Lot. The City will host a public information centre (PIC) to present and discuss the property. The Roseland Golf and Curling Club will see curling moved to Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex for the start of the 2024-2025 curling season. This change, along with demolition of the current clubhouse and curling rink allows for a complete re-imagining of what the current Roseland building footprint and unused parking lot space have to offer.
Development in this area will have zero impact on the historic Donald Ross –designed golf course, but a new clubhouse will be built, and a plan for an innovative and complementary new condominium complex has been envisioned. City administrators have worked with local architecture group Architecttura Inc. Architects to develop a conceptual condo complex befitting of the historic Roseland Golf Course and South Windsor neighbourhood. This concept includes a potential 38 one-to-two-bedroom units, including balcony, a green roof, underground parking, tiered levels, glass railings, and sports courts along the south side of the current parking lot.
With public consultation being an integral part of the process, members of the public, agencies, and other interested persons are invited to participate in the upcoming Roseland Golf Club Parking Lot PIC:
- Date: Thursday, March 7, 2024
- Time: 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
- Location: Roseland Golf and Curling Club, 455 Kennedy Drive
A Roseland Clubhouse and Parking Lot Development online survey will also be available from March 1 to 24, 2024, for community members and stakeholders to provide input as part of the consultation process. Hard copies of the survey will also be available at the PIC on March 7, 2024.
Summary of Windsor’s Key Housing Milestones to Date:
- Adopted the Home Together: Windsor Essex Housing and Homelessness Master Plan.
- Adopted a comprehensive amendment to its Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw that identified “Intensification Priority Areas” made up of Mixed Use Centres (260 ha.), Mixed Use Corridors (50 km) and Mixed Use Nodes (137 ha.) to support housing targets.
- Received housing targets from the Province of Ontario as one of the 29 fastest-growing municipalities to help the province reach a goal of realizing 1.5 million new homes in a decade.
- Committed to supporting 13,000 new housing units by 2031 as part of its Housing Pledge to the provincial government.
- Commissioned an independent housing needs assessment report.
- Identified 1000 acres and nearly 50 km of arterial roads with bus routes available for developments aimed at densification make sense for Windsor.
- Identified and released a list of municipal lands that are ideal for development to support housing, particularly affordable housing and missing middle housing, as part of the Housing Solutions Made for Windsor plan.
