By John Francis, Bruce Peninsula Press
Northern Bruce Peninsula is in the middle of a housing crisis. The young people all the businesses desperately need to hire can’t find a place to live.
Real estate listings for liveable dwellings seem to start around $400,000, while most building lots are $100,000 or more. The key to the high prices is lack of supply. Houses have been snapped up by investors looking for capital gains or short-term rental income. Building lots are in short supply, largely because the process for creating a subdivision is long, expensive and not always successful.
Many of the limitations to development hinge on drinking water and sewage disposal. Karst topography — limestone bedrock riddled with subterranean caves and watercourses — lies beneath much of the peninsula, complicating drainage, threatening wells and causing occasional flooding. Subdivision plans must solve all these problems before they can be approved. Town sewers and town water would be an obvious solution, but both require trenches and here as well, the bedrock adds complication and expense.
Two developers are hoping to add to MNBP’s housing supply but the two companies are taking very different approaches.
Teska Holdings Inc and Msignature homes propose to develop a site on Warner Bay Road, a few kilometres south of Tobermory. Teska’s website indicates that the company proposes to subdivide their 25 acre parcel into 32 “estate lots” of about .75 acres each. The lots would be serviced with well and septic. The company’s sign promises 2023 occupancy.
Msignature homes has created several small subdivisions in towns and villages in eastern Ontario. All but one of these are listed as “Sold Out”; the one active development, at Rockland, east of Ottawa, offers upscale models only, varying from 1,584 square feet for $759,800 to 2,015 square feet for $899,000.
If the Tobermory development follows this template, it will not have much impact on the affordable housing crisis.
The Warner Bay property is currently zoned Ru1 (Rural Residential). The process of creating a subdivision would take at least 9 or 10 months after a complete set of plans and environmental reports are submitted. At this time, that process has not even been initiated, so the company’s promise of “2023 Occupancy” might be a bit optimistic.
The other developer, Churchill Developments, has purchased a 56-acre property on Chi Sin Tib Dek Road in the village of Tobermory. Churchill’s development, named “Latitude 56” proposes to put in approximately 100 housing units, including single family homes, duplexes and small apartment buildings. CEO Cal Churchill says his company is “trying to create a solution to Tobermory’s affordable housing crisis”. He imagines young families building a duplex, then renting half to help with the mortgage payment. Small apartment complexes would also help people get a foothold in the community. He proposes to work with the planning department to find the best mix of uses for Latitude 56.
Churchill points out that the town sewage line goes up Highway 6 and passes within 100 metres of his property line. Hooking his new properties up to sewer would solve one of the largest problems faced by peninsula developers.
As to the other problem — water — Churchill proposes to not only solve the problem for his subdivision, but to solve it for the whole village. He points out that the south corner of his property is only a few hundred feet from Little Dunks Bay, on a road allowance.
He proposes to donate 5 acres of Latitude 56 land to the municipality to put in a large town water processing facility, drawing the water from (deep and almost pristine) Little Dunks Bay. That would provide a water source to the commercial sector which is growing rapidly along Highway 6 and could easily expand down the highway to the village itself. Churchill believes “there is an opportunity to collaborate with Parks Canada, SON, Bruce County and MNBP to work on a plan to build out our desperately needed municipal infrastructure in a strategic and meaningful way”.
“My dream goal,” he says, “is for people to think this is a good idea and get behind it.”
Churchill points out that other municipalities charge a development fee for every new lot, to cover the cost of bringing water and sewer to the lot line. He suggests that $9,000 per lot is a reasonable number to begin discussions with. And he proposes to begin by paying MNBP that $9,000 for each housing unit in the Latitude 56 development. “The savings of not building separate water and septic systems is enormous and those savings can easily go toward our town infrastructure.”
Town water would make a big difference to Tobermory, especially if coupled with an expansion of the area served by town sewers. It would allow increased “densification” — granny flats, secondary suites and even second houses on properties. It would make it dramatically easier to create and run a business and could easily double the village’s population capacity.
The Latitude 56 property is currently zoned R2; Churchill has not begun the process of applying for development permits but is currently working with a variety of consultants — from urban planners, environmental engineers to archeologists — and hopes to submit a development proposal by year’s end.
