More affordable housing is on the way for Collingwood, according to design plans unveiled by the County of Simcoe on Feb. 11.
The project at 29 and 45 Birch St., will include a three-storey modular building containing 30 apartments. Plans include a common room on the main floor, and outdoor patio amenity space, a community program room, indoor bike/scooter storage, community garden boxes, parking for 17 vehicles and an indoor garbage/recycling room.
At Monday’s meeting, councillors got a glimpse at early designs for the project, and an ambitious timeline that will see the new building open its doors to tenants in the Spring of 2026.
“This is exciting for us,” said Coun. Kathy Jeffery. “I look forward to the next steps. I think it’s going to be great for the neighbours not to have an extended construction period. There are so many benefits for us as a town and them as a neighbourhood and community.”
County council is expected to see and approve the plans in March.
If all goes according to plan, the county is expecting to start their formal applications to the town, which will include consultation with the Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority and public consultation. Current residents will be moved out in July. In August, the county is hoping to get construction underway.
Modules will be delivered in October, and construction crews will work to seal the outside of the building before winter hits. Over next winter, construction crews will finish work on the interior.
If all goes according to plan, the county expects to formally open the building for occupancy in the Spring of 2026.
Units will be rented out at 80 per cent of average market rents, which in Collingwood (as defined by the Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation) translates to $816 for studio units, $1,047 for one-bedrooms, $1,231 for two bedrooms and $1,357 for a three-bedroom apartment.
The unit breakdown in the building will be 13 studio units, 11 one-bedrooms, three two-bedrooms and three three-bedrooms. Twenty per cent of the units will be fully accessible.
When Collingwood council discussed putting the Birch St. property forward for the county's call back in January, they discussed at that time that the county would need to find interim housing for the people who currently live in the apartments while construction took place, and set aside units in the new build for them to return to upon completion as a condition of the town handing the land over for zero dollars to the county, a condition to which the county agreed.
Confirmed on Monday, existing Birch St. tenants will be provided with the right of first refusal, meaning the tenants have the right to move back to this location once the project is completed.
Current tenants of the Johnson Trust apartments will be provided with alternative accommodations in Collingwood throughout the construction, and will be provided with moving costs both when they move out of their current homes, and when they move back into the new apartments.
Their current rental rates will be honoured in the new building through the county’s rent supplement program.
“This was a really important point for me,” said Mayor Yvonne Hamlin during discussion. “I’m very much in support.”
Helen Bull lives across the street from the property. She said she’d like to see the existing cedar hedge remain for privacy. As the building is expected to face Birch St., she worried it will encroach on the neighbourhood. She also worried about light pollution from the building.
“It’s going to be in-your-face. There’s no screening provided from the street like there is now,” she said. “There is obviously a deficiency of parking spots for the building.”
Judy Shepherd lives down the street from the property, and asked if the county could consider making the exterior red brick to help the building fit in better in the neighbourhood, and also raised the issue of parking.
“What is your plan for the parking? There’s no on-street parking from December to March,” she said.
The town’s planning director Summer Valentine explained that under the town’s current zoning rules, apartment buildings are required to include 0.5 parking spaces per unit and 0.25 spaces of visitor parking per unit, with which the project complies.
“The challenge is, additional parking will result is less landscaped, outside space, which has been highlighted by residents as being very important,” Valentine explained.
The Johnson Trust apartments at 29 to 45 Birch St. were originally owned by the Johnson family. The apartment units had been converted from a lumber yard/bread distribution business. About 40 years ago, the property was given to the town and the Rotary Club of Collingwood to jointly manage. While the town owned the land, the Rotary club managed the buildings, where rent collected went toward operational costs as well as Rotary projects. The contract was for 20 years, and was renewed for an additional 20 years. It expired Dec. 31, 2020.
Rotary provided the town notice in 2021 that it was terminating its part of the agreement. The town then retained a third-party property manager to deal with day-to-day operations. There are currently nine apartments on the site, but not all of them are occupied. Some are condemned.
“This is a win all around for me. We’re going from nine to 30 units. It will take a little bit out of the 1,300 units we’re short. Thirty is better than none,” said Coun. Steve Perry.
At the end of discussion, the county’s director of social housing Bradley Spiewak said that most of the issues raised by residents and neighbours could be addressed in the final design, and the county could bring updated design drawings to future public information sessions.
“It’s very easy for us to work with,” he said.