Serviced land supply: Municipalities failing to meet need

NRU
June 10, 2015
By Leah Wong

The province and municipalities in the Greater Toronto Area have failed to meet provincial requirements for serviced land causing a shortage of new ground-related housing in the region.

A new policy commentary by Ryerson University’s Centre for Urban Research and Land Development senior research fellow Frank Clayton says despite provincial policy requiring a backlog of serviced land municipalities are failing to maintain a supply.

“We have lots of designated land, but serviced land supply is in short supply,” Clayton told participants of a CURLD seminar June 1. “You can’t build new ground-related housing - that includes townhouses - without serviced land.”

Clayton said the serviced land shortage has occurred despite provincial policy requiring municipalities to ensure an adequate supply. The 2014 Provincial Policy Statement requires municipalities to maintain at all times “land with servicing capacity sufficient to provide at least a three-year supply of residential units” in areas where new residential development is set to occur.

Despite this policy, housing starts for ground-related units have not kept up with the province’s projected population growth. The 2013 population forecasts completed for the province by Hemson Consulting show a need for 19,829 units per year between 2011 and 2021. Between 2011 and 2013 housing starts fell short by about 2,200 units per year.

Few municipalities in the GTA have reported on available residential land supply. Clayton said the few that have reported have lumped together all types of residential units and not differentiated between land for single-detached houses and condominiums. While the PPS does not require that serviced land be for a specific type of unit, Clayton said looking at all housing types doesn’t take into account the types with higher demand.

“The Ministry [of Municipal Affairs and Housing] should determine what the supply of short-term land is in the GTA,” said Clayton. And he would like the ministry to require that the supply of land be divided by unit type. Since municipalities track development applications, Clayton said tracking serviced land supply shouldn’t be a difficult process.