If Sault Ste. Marie is going to meet its goal of 1,500 new housing starts by 2031, it may need to move faster than it has in the past year.
Just-released construction figures show building permits were issued for 110 residential units in 2023, down from 344 in 2022 and 133 in 2021.
In October, city council agreed to a provincially assigned local housing target of 1,500 new housing starts between 2022 and 2031.
That's an average of 167 residential starts a year.
If Sault Ste. Marie meets that target, it will qualify for $1.2 million under Ontario's Building Faster Fund.
If we achieve 110 per cent of the target, the province will give us $1.4 million.
We got off to a very strong start in 2022, with Royal Canadian Legion Branch 25's $34 million, 108-unit nine-storey apartment tower at 96 Great Northern Rd.
But 2023 was a less-spectacular year, with building permits issued for 43 new single-family dwellings, two semi and duplex housing units, 48 row houses and triplexes, and 17 other types of housing units, totalling just 110.
Prior to 2022, Sault Ste. Marie's recent yearly housing starts have been well below the assigned target average of 167:
- 133 in 2021
- 78 in 2020
- 92 in 2019
- 80 in 2018
- 89 in 2017
- 105 in 2016
But the Sault has a proven capability to build fast when we need to.
Our highest number of new residential units was 1,103 in 1981, culminating a late-1970s building boom:
- 749 in 1976
- 792 in 1977
- 799 in 1978
- 854 in 1979
- 673 in 1980
A lesser boom occurred in 1988 and 1989, with about 525 units approved each year.
On Jan. 29, city council will consider a number of zoning changes intended to make it easier to build new housing in the Sault.
The proposed amendments to be discussed include:
- permitting up to four dwelling units on all urban residential lots, including lots in the single-detached residential zone (R2), subject to performance standards such as setbacks, lot coverage, building height, etc.
- replacing the terms single-detached homes, semis, triplexes and fourplexes with 'detached residential buildings' that can contain one, two, three or four units
- allowing higher density residential development (greater than four dwelling units) in the low-density residential zone (R3), in the form of detached residential buildings and multiple-attached dwellings with no limit on the number of dwelling units
- permitting additional types of residential uses in commercial zones and adding dwelling units as a permitted use in the shopping centre (C5) zone, subject to restrictions on ground floor dwelling units in certain circumstances
- permitting a variety of dwelling units within the institutional zone
- reducing parking requirements to one space per dwelling unit
Sault Ste. Marie finished 2023 with 68 building permits for new residential construction valued at $40.5 million.
The only residential new build approved in December was a $280,000 single-family dwelling on Rossmore Road.