Richmond Hill asks York Region to require at least 35% affordable housing in key growth area developments

Richmond Hill is expected to be home to 319,600 people in 2051

Yorkregion.com
April 4, 2022
Sheila Wang

With the update of the regional official plan underway, the City of Richmond Hill wants to make sure all future developments can contribute their fair share of affordable housing in the main growth areas across the region.

Richmond Hill council has requested the region to amend its draft plan to require a minimum of 35 per cent of residential units in each new development application located within a regional centre or Major Transit Station Areas (MTSAs) to be affordable.

In its draft plan released for review and comment last November, the region required a minimum 35 per cent of new housing to be affordable in regional centres or MTSAs. Richmond Hill city staff recommended that the region explicitly specify that the minimum affordable housing target applies to all new residential development applications in those areas.

"We're saying have it with each development, rather than after 20 years let's hope that we get to 35 per cent and we'll have to add it all up, we'll just get it each time, " said Patrick Lee, Richmond Hill’s director of policy planning, who presented the draft plan to council at the meeting.

Council further amended the recommendation by excluding Gormley GO MTSA from the 35 per cent affordability rule as the area is considered “different” from other major transit station areas across the region.

The Gormley GO MTSA is one of the latest additions to the list of major transit station areas identified by the region in Richmond Hill.

York Region identified the area around Gormley GO station as an MTSA in September 2020 with a proposed density target of 50 residents and jobs per hectare.

There are currently 18 MTSAs across the city, most of which are expected to accommodate 160 or 200 residents and jobs per hectare.

A regional previously noted that the area is “unique” as the Gormley GO Station is located within a rural area of the Oak Ridges Moraine where there is limited development potential.

The amendments were approved by a majority of Richmond Hill council members at the meeting following a two-hour-long discussion centred around the definition of affordability.

Generally speaking, housing is considered “affordable” if it costs less than 30 per cent of a gross annual income for low- and moderate-income households.

In Richmond Hill, the threshold for low- and moderate-income ownership households is $118,000 and that for renter households is $56,000, according to the city’s director of policy planning.

Mayor David West, supportive of the motion, told the Richmond Hill Liberal that the amendments are consistent with the city's goal to "develop a made-in-Richmond-Hill housing strategy."

"If you don’t ensure that the 35 per cent goal is incorporated into each development within the regional centres and MTSA’s (where most of the growth will take place over the next decades), you will be trying to play ‘catch up’ with the last few developers, and that is not a formula for success," West said.

While a majority of council members supported the amendments, Regional Coun. Carmine Perrelli voted against the motion, spurning it as “not even close to a solution” to affordability.

Last February, York Region unanimously supported a motion made by Regional Coun. Joe DiPaola to declare an affordable housing crisis.

Alongside the affordable housing amendment, council also approved an amendment to request the region to relocate a GO station from the proposed location at Bayway and 19th Avenue to Elgin Mills and Newkirk.

The newly proposed GO station is expected to service residents and business along the Yonge corridor and Yonge and Bernard key development area and the Newkirk Business Park.

In his presentation, Lee also updated the city council on the population growth targets laid out by the region.

With an estimated population of 213,700 in 2021, Richmond Hill is expected to be home to 319,600 people in 2051, providing 122,800 jobs.

Statistics show that the city saw a 3.6 per cent population growth between 2016 and 2021, slowed due to COVID-19 and other factors, but still higher than many other GTA municipalities such as Markham and Toronto.

“In the end, it’s not about how much we grow to show how successful we are. It’s about how well we grow,” Lee said.

The updated regional official plan -- scheduled to be adopted in mid 2022 -- is expected to be a blueprint to guide growth to the year 2051.

The public is encouraged to provide feedback and comment on the draft plan to the region. Go to york.ca for more information.