The City of Owen Sound took another step forward on several residential projects at last night's council meeting, including two more phases of the AndPet East Court development which is south of 16th Street East and west of 16th Avenue where the Southbridge long-term care home and a new retirement home are currently being built.

A 36-unit cluster rental townhouse development with eight buildings, each containing between three to six townhouse dwelling units will be located on an internal private road network that will not be assumed by the City. Another 11 life lease townhouses are proposed just to the west of those.

On the west side, Barry's Construction recently bought property on the north side of 28th Street West for a five-store apartment building. Of the 79 units, 12 are proposed to be barrier-free. The developers are also considering use of one of the affordable housing streams available through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) for the proposed development. If successful in obtaining funding, this would result in a percentage of the units allocated for affordable housing – as many as 24.

Council exempted rental properties from development charges to encourage the building these much needed units.  As 115 of these units will be rentals, the City has waived over $600,000 in development charges from these two local developers.

Councillor Richard Thomas said “I’d like to think this development is a result of the action we took on development charges as a council."