Moncton looks to sell municipal land for affordable housing
CBC
Moncton is preparing to sell portions of city-owned land to be redeveloped as housing.
That includes a small portion of the Moncton Coliseum complex property off Killam Drive. Council voted Nov. 17 to declare a portion of the property surplus — the first step to seeing it redeveloped.
"This is the third property that's been declared surplus for the purposes of affordable housing," Josh Davies, the city’s manager of long range policy planning, said during a recent interview beside the site.
The roughly one-acre parcel along Killam Drive is near one of the entrances to the sprawling Coliseum site. The arena complex and parking lots would remain owned by the city.
"What we would anticipate for this type of development would be a multi-storey, multi-unit building, potentially with the commercial activity on the ground floor," Davies said. "So three to four storeys."
The land would still need to be subdivided, rezoned, and go through a process to find a non-profit organization to buy it.
Davies said if that all goes well, the city hopes to see construction start in 2027, with residents occupying the building the following year.
Selling portions of municipal land is meant to help address a barrier to affordable housing construction, Davies said.
"Often the biggest issue that our non-profit partners have is to actually acquire land to pursue funding from other levels of government," he said.
"So this is a very good option for the city where land is available and considered surplus to help increase that housing supply."
The city’s land disposal policy defines affordable housing as "low-cost housing oriented toward low income or non-income generating residents that is operated by a non-profit corporation whose primary mandate is to supply affordable housing."
The policy says surplus land designated for affordable housing will be sold for $1, and the buyer must agree to a condition requiring it to operate affordable housing.
One of the other locations is near the Killam Drive roundabout.
Another location that’s farther along in the process is 1.5 kilometres away between Spruce and Cedar streets.
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