Region of Queens Council has voted in favour of rezoning for 26 units of affordable housing in Liverpool.

In November, Council approved selling four adjoining lots between Lawrence and Amherst streets and Trestle Trail and the Queens Street Extension to Queens Neighbourhood Cooperative Housing Ltd, an offshoot of the Queens Care Society group for one dollar.

The area is currently zoned for Lower Density Residential and needs to be redesignated for Multiple Unit Residential to accommodate the two proposed buildings.

The municipality’s Planning Advisory Committee approved the proposed development at their June 19 meeting. Council approved the rezoning at Tuesday’s council meeting following a public hearing where no one spoke for or against the proposed development.

A public notice will be issued Aug 16 and the four parcels will be rezoned Multiple Unit Residential effective Aug 31.

Mayor Darlene Norman says council wants to do everything it can to get this project of the ground as everyone is aware of the desperate need for more housing.

“We’re a year and a half in already from the time we first started talking about council selling the land,” said Norman. “Because then you have to go through the public hearing of selling it for a dollar and all other such things, and then the deeds, and then the rezoning, so we’re going through this as quickly as we can.”

At an expected cost of $6 million, the development will require funding from several sources and the cooperation of different levels of governments and other agencies.

The municipality has already committed $203,000 in the 2023-24 budget for the group to complete predevelopment work on the site including project management and engineering fees, architectural drawings costs and a landscape architect as well as initial site clearing, road access excavation and digging test pits.

Norman says the Region will continue to assist the Queens Neighbourhood Cooperative Housing Ltd.

“It’s their project so we’re not sticking our nose in it, but everything they need, every help they want, they come see us,” said Norman.

The new development will focus on seniors but aims to be inclusive and diverse.

As a co-op, the units will be owned by members who will form a democratically elected board of directors to make decisions about maintenance or improvements of their units. In the co-op model, members will not build equity in their unit like a private homeowner. Instead that equity will be used to build more units and pay off the development over a longer mortgage period, between 40 and 50 years, keeping the units affordable. As one occupant leaves, the next occupant won’t be faced with a massive increase in housing costs.

The board of the Queens Neighbourhood Cooperative Housing Ltd. is working to break ground on the new development in early spring of 2024.

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