A patch of vacant land the community of Azilda has long adopted as informal greenspace with maintained sports fields will remain as such for the time being.
Previously slated to be set aside for a future affordable housing project, city council voted 9-3 on Tuesday to keep the institutionally zoned land north of the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre status-quo.
At least, for now.
In a move that surprised at least some of the Azilda residents who attended Tuesday’s city council meeting, Ward 4 Coun. Pauline Fortin amended her motion to tack on an aquatic facility.
Where her original motion would have pulled the property from the city’s land banking for affordable housing, the revised motion which passed on Tuesday would allow the land to be earmarked for affordable housing once construction starts on a long-talked-about and delayed aquatic facility in Azilda.
Describing it as “a good compromise” and “give and take,” Fortin told Sudbury.com following Tuesday’s meeting that she hopes the community will be happy with the motion.
“We’re going to give up a bit of greenspace, but it’ll become a full recreational facility with the pool,” she said of the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre. “The community’s been waiting for the pool for more than 25 years.”
Outside of council chambers following the vote, Azilda residents gathered to discuss what took place, many of whom were surprised by Fortin’s decision to tack on a pool.
Although the group elected 25-year resident Diane Gouchie to speak to Sudbury.com, many of them expressed confusion amongst themselves regarding the pool, with one asking, “Why’d she even put it on the table?”
“I’m going to email her after to ask her about this,” Gouchie told Sudbury.com of Fortin’s motion.
Gouchie said that her main point of concern was in retaining Azilda’s greenspace.
“It’s a beautiful piece of property that gets used by the whole community,” she said. “There’s got to be other available land, even in Azilda, that could accommodate this. Why would you take away any part of a developed greenspace?”
Last year, unanimous votes of both the planning committee of city council and city council as a whole decided to include the Lionel E. Lalonde property in the city’s land-banking project, which sets aside municipal land for future affordable housing projects.
Under this program, affordable housing is defined as 80-per-cent of market rents. Municipal properties are sold to private developers with conditions around their use as affordable housing.
The aim, Mayor Paul Lefebvre explained, is to bring properties to a shovel-ready status so the city can jump on whatever opportunities arise. In this case, no specific project has been lined up for Azilda.
On Tuesday, Fortin told Sudbury.com that although she voted in favour of adding the Lionel E. Lalonde property to the city’s land-banking efforts last year, she had to in order to bring it up for reconsideration (only those on the prevailing side of a vote are eligible).
Fortin also raised concerns regarding the property’s recreational amenities at the time, including its sports fields. These concerns were factored into the plan which was presented to the community during a public meeting on April 30, which incorporated the existing fields into the south side of the property. The proposed pool which Fortin tacked onto Tuesday’s motion was also included in the municipal renderings presented to Azilda residents.
The conceptual drawings presented on April 30 included five housing complexes with 40 units apiece at the north end of the property to show what city staff described as the greatest density residents could expect.
More than 100 people showed up to voice their staunch opposition to the project during the April 30 public meeting at the Lionel E. Lalonde Centre.
“Some of this is NIMBY-ism for sure,” Fortin said on Tuesday, referencing an acronym for “not in my backyard,” but she clarified that this wasn’t the prevailing message, which centered more around retaining greenspace.
(Outside of council chambers, Gouchie roundly rejected the notion of NIMBY-ism in conversation with Sudbury.com, clarifying that although there may be inklings of it among some area residents, most people oppose the development because they want to retain greenspace.)
“It may not be zoned parkland, but it has been recreational greenspace for generations, and all the community is asking is for it to be left alone,” Fortin said.
Although Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent said that he doesn’t support “NIMBY-ism in any form,” he clarified, “once that greenspace is taken away, you can’t get it back.” Parent said that he is confident the city will find an alternative location for land banking.
On the losing end of the 9-3 vote was Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh, Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer and Ward 11 Coun. Bill Leduc. All other members voted in favour of Fortin’s motion, minus Ward 12 Coun. Joscelyne Landry-Altmann, who was not present.
“I believe that when we sit at this table we’re here to try and make the best long-term decisions in the interests of the entire city,” McIntosh said.
“We need more homes. … Every meeting I go to, we talk about housing at this table. Every committee meeting.”
McIntosh cited various efforts to increase the city’s housing stock, including their commitment to end homelessness by 2030, reducing and freezing development charges and the creation of the Future-Ready Development Services Committee.
Mayor Paul Lefebvre has also set a goal to increase the city’s population to 200,000 by 2050, McIntosh said, and led efforts to create a Housing Supply Strategy to accommodate them.
“These people need places to live. We have people now who need places to live, kids living in our basements who need places to live, who want to move out on their own.”
Fortin’s motion to tack on a pool isn’t appropriate, McIntosh added.
“We need housing now,” she said. “We don’t need a pool right now, but we need housing.”
For his part, Leduc sussed out from city staff that the wait-list for one-bedroom units currently exceeds 1,000 names. Sudbury.com reported last week that the wait list for geared-to-income units in Greater Sudbury is 1,654 households, including 1,077 who are waiting for one-bedroom units.
Per Fortin’s motion, the Lionel E. Lalonde site may still accommodate an affordable housing project at some point in the future, but Fortin said it’s at least kicked down the road a ways.
During Tuesday’s meeting, city acting Community Development general manager Brendan Adair described the pool as a “multiple-year project.”
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.