Charlottetown looks to add housing with official plan, but residents have mixed feelings

After more than two years of developing an official plan, the City of Charlottetown is getting close to voting on adopting it. Some residents have concerns with higher density housing the plan could make way for, but others are welcoming it.

The last time an official plan was drafted for P.E.I.'s capital was back in 1999.

The draft of the official plan considers increasing housing density along nodes and corridors.

Corridors include sections of some of the major routes through the city — University Avenue, St. Peters Road, Belvedere Avenue, Capital Drive — and the nodes will fall where the intersections of those arteries meet such as the corner of University and Belvedere Avenue.

Corridors are high-traffic roads which have a mix of residential and commercial development. The draft of the official plan would allow for six-storey apartment buildings in those areas.

In the node areas, eight-storey apartments could be built under the draft of the official plan.

That has some residents concerned about what could go up next to them. About 30 residents filled the council chamber for the public meeting on Wednesday night, with others sitting outside the council chamber watching the meeting on a TV.

"If you are going to do it in our neighbourhood, you do it in the heritage neighbourhoods too. Right now everything is up for grabs; where there is empty space, use it," said Carolyn Walsh, who lives in Charlottetown.

"There is a lot of other space that can be used… then you have to deal with a contractor who might have bought a house and he is going to go in and decide, 'OK, we're going to make this into a four-unit or five-unit.' How does that even address the situation of bringing more business or anything else. It brings more problems," Walsh said, adding she worries about crimes, such as break and enters, which she claimed could come along with higher density housing.

Walsh does agree the city needs an official plan, but she doesn't think this is the right one, she said.

In the plan there is also protection for the 500-lot area,  where many heritage homes sit in the downtown core. Proposed housing in that area would be required to go through a design review process and incorporate storm surge protection.

However, Charlottetown's Mayor, Philip Brown, is clear the draft plan isn't the official guiding document when it comes to what buildings go where.

"It's only a vision. It's not the nuts and bolts that will come after we start on the zoning and development bylaw," said Charlottetown Mayor Philip Brown.

The city has received $10.2 million funding from the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, but a caveat of that money was for the city to allow as-of-right four-unit buildings.

The section of the draft official plan on residential neighbourhoods defines low-density as four units or fewer per lot.

But Michael Ruus, director of integrated growth for the city, said that doesn't mean people can build fourplexes wherever they want. Each project will still be discussed, debated and voted on by city council.

"That policy framework is what our planning team uses to evaluate any changes to the actual zoning bylaw which provides the rules of the road for development. And so, that's the next part of the project which we'll be starting this year," he said.

"We'll have a completely separate public engagement program running throughout the summer and into the fall before we finalize the new zoning and development bylaw which will set out those new rules."

The city is undergoing amendments to its zoning and development bylaw; that document would work hand in hand with the official plan if it's adopted by council.

Some at the public meeting questioned why zoning amendments weren't addressed before the city asked for public feedback on a draft of the official plan.

"One of the measurements people are asking for is how the special zoning relates to this conceptual overarching plan. That's how it is going to be judged, and I think maybe it has been a mistake to separate the two elements," said Brian Gillis, who lives in the city.

"Two big items I see in the plan I have concern for are the strong emphasis on corridors and what I am still trying to grapple with is the concept of a node as an urban design feature,"

Others at the meeting were in full support of the draft plan as is.

"We have one of the lowest rental vacancy rates in the entire country. This has made it a challenge to move to, let alone stay in Charlottetown.

"We've sort of seen the consequences of that over the past year in particular, where a good number of young people have left the Island. In fact, more have left the Island in the last year than have moved to Charlottetown," said Matt Pelletier, vice-president of Fusion Charlottetown, an advocacy group for young adults in P.E.I's capital region.

The draft plan's focus on increasing housing density will help some of those issues Pelletier outlined, he said.

"As written, the draft plan takes some really important steps relating to improving housing in residential areas, along major corridors and at major intersections and importantly allowing for higher order apartments near UPEI, Holland College and near the Queen Elizabeth Hospital."

Charlottetown resident Ryan Pineau, who described himself as a YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard), agreed with Pelletier that the plan should move ahead.

"I feel this plan achieves that in terms of backfilling and adding some density into the city that is really needed," said Pineau.

He knows some people have an unfavourable opinion of some folks who live in apartment buildings, but notes that's part of a journey in many people's lives, he said.

"Before I purchased a single-family home on Mount Edward Road I lived in an apartment building. It was an eight-unit on Doncaster. And I don't think I or any other residents of that apartment were any lesser people than people who live in single-family homes," Pineau said.

Incentive for secondary suites

The draft official plan suggests "gentle infill" in residential areas, which encourages increasing housing density in the city through secondary suites and semi-detached dwellings.

"There is a lot of focus on the increase in housing because of the increase in demand, but we also have to look at adding secondary and garden suites in existing neighbourhoods to provide more affordable rental homes," Brown said.

The city plans to encourage that development by offering home owners $10,000 to add those accessory dwellings to their properties.

"We could develop up to 1,700 additional units," Brown said.

There were some mistakes in the proposed zoning in the maps attached to the draft plan, with some parks marked for development. City officials said these errors will be corrected.

The public feedback from the meeting will now be reviewed by the city's planning board before the final version of the plan is presented to council for a vote. The plan also needs to be signed off by the province.