This year, the Blue Mountains Attainable Housing Corporation (BMAHC) has undertaken its first attainable housing project in Thornbury at 171 King St East, also known as the Gateway site.
Most recently, this month, the BMAHC began issuing the request for pre-qualifications.
“This is the first of a two-phase procurement process to engage a design builder for the attainable housing development at the 171 King Street East,” said Sharon McCormick, executive director of the BMAHC.
The intent of the request is to create a shortlist of design-build firms who fit the project criteria.
“The pre-qualification stage is pre-qualifying proponents based on their corporate experience, qualifications and similar project experience,” she said.
According to McCormick, the BMAHC plans to proceed out of the pre-qualification stage with up to four proponents who will then be required to move through the Request for Proposal (RFP) process.
“The RFP stage is anticipated to be in the spring once town council has been able to make a decision on the planning parameters for the site and give the project definition of certainty for soliciting design and cost proposals,” McCormick said.
The Town of the Blue Mountains’ (TBM) council is expected to make a decision on the Gateway site design parameters in the spring.
“We're still consulting with the public,” said TBM Mayor Alar Soever. “We haven't relaunched the planning process yet. So, that will be more opportunity for the public to engage with us on what they want to see on that site.”
Progress at the Gateway site has also been slightly impacted by the town’s neighbouring infrastructure project at the Thornbury Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is currently in the process of receiving an upgrade to its headworks system.
As part of the planning process for the Gateway site, an odour study was required.
“A noise and odour study is being conducted to determine if there is in fact any impact from the wastewater treatment plant located across the road and behind this site,” stated McCormick.
According to TBM councillor and chair of the BMAHC, Rob Sampson, a new odour study will need to be conducted once the upgrades at the wastewater treatment plant have been completed.
“We're going to go back and do another odour assessment study based upon potential odours coming from the site of the wastewater treatment plant after the headworks is installed,” Sampson said. “The mandatory consultant review noted that the headworks may have been actually contributing to some of the odours and they were picking up.”
The upgrades at the Thornbury Wastewater Treatment Plant began on the site in May and are anticipated to be complete by February.
However, according to Sampson, progress at the attainable housing site will go hand-in-hand with progress at the wastewater treatment site.
“There's going to be a study that follows after the completion of the headworks program. So, if that work is delayed by a month, that study is delayed by a month and the RFP is delayed by a month. That's kind of the linkage between the two,” he explained.
The BMAHC anticipates finalizing the building contract for the Gateway project in 2021.
Currently, construction is forecast to begin in early 2022 and expected to be completed by 2023.
Over the course of the year the BMAHC has taken the following actions to move the project forward:
May
- Initial mock up designs of the Gateway site were released to the public
- A community survey: 305 completed surveys were received from members of the community
June
- The BMAHC board evaluated the conceptual plans and the report from the community survey
- TBM council passed a motion that directed TBM staff to initiate site-specific planning amendments to the town’s official plan in order to facilitate the ability to explore all building options
August
September
October
- BMAHC created a community position on its evaluation team for the procurement of design-builders
- Members of the corporation participated in a town hall event
- The corporation began developing the Gateway project design guidelines task force
November
- Task Force members meet to advise BMAHC on the creation of design guidelines for the Gateway site
