Cornwall Council has mixed reactions to the town’s expanded housing plans

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Cornwall Council had plenty of questions for consultants and management on Tuesday night after a wide-ranging housing presentation.

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Not surprisingly, Massey Commons was an early topic during the Q&A, with Coun. Fred Ngoundjo wonders if the plan is in place, even if the risk assessment has not been completed – or even started?

Jesse McPhail, an urban planner at Montreal-based Republic Urbanism, and company founder Paul Hicks deferred to the administration for a response, and Cornwall CAO Mathieu Fleury told Ngoundjo that a risk assessment is a tool to address potential problems of safety on site, but not something. which could derail the project.

“(An assessment) will help us, whether it’s lighting, fencing or trees, etc. – (the assessment is) a project, it does not hinder any of our efforts related to Massey Commons,” Fleury said.

Massey Commons transitional housing plan has been controversial; Ngoundjo, at a council meeting earlier this year, said the city made a mistake in selecting the site for the project.

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Regarding a longer-term project at the former Bob Turner Memorial Center and current Cornwall Athletic Field, Cont. Todd Bennett wanted – and received – assurances from the administration that public consultations will be part of the process before any finalized architectural plans are set in stone.

cone Claude McIntosh told consultants it was almost as if he heard the city cash register humming in the building as the cost of construction was mentioned.

“It’s more than a vision — it’s expensive,” he said.

Con said. Denis Sabourin: “I always shy away from price tags, (and these) $177 million – the caveat is that it all depends on other sources of funding. (But) how do you extrapolate the cost from year to year to year, a project that goes from 2024 to 2034? So $177 million now, (but) what are you projecting for the costs (years later)?”

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Land economist Chris White, of Toronto-based consultancy Parcel Economics, who appeared virtually at the meeting, said the current figures take into account percentage increases in costs, but also in the longer term a likely return to historic inflation levels and not what currently exists.

While all of that is included in the long-term estimates presented to the board, Sabourin didn’t buy it and expressed that, of course, the estimates will be revised upward as the years go by.

Cornwall Housing Services and consultants have announced plans to build 538 affordable homes over the next 10 years at seven locations across the city and region at an estimated gross development cost of $177.7 million.

cone Dean Hollingsworth said he disagreed with the terms and conditions of the report, which includes a price tag of $328 million if the nearly 1,000 needed housing units were completed.

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“If anyone knows where we’re going to find $328 million, even with the upper levels of government (involved), please tell me. . . this particular (housing) plan is unsustainable,” he said.

Hollingsworth said the BTMC property is a significant piece of land and he would like to know what private sector developers have to say about building there. He was probably referring to at least one private developer, JC Godard, who submitted a redevelopment proposal for that particular property that would require the city to sell him the land for $500,000, providing a major tax subsidy and to- and assumes certain related costs, allowing him to build more apartment blocks to be offered at the lower end of market rental rates.

But Con. Elaine MacDonald said there’s nothing stopping developers from building things, but “why would we ever take a public good and (give it away). . . it would be like giving away part of our heritage, giving away part of the city to a developer who will make money from it.”

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