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 There are nights when I come home from a Council meeting skaking my head. Yesterday was one of those nights, and not for the reasons you might imagine.
In an item that went practically unnoticed, the Council majority voted (I cast the lone nay vote) to amend its official plan (no small endeavor) to restrict future condominium conversion applications.
The amendment of note stipulates that "the proposed conversion, when totalled with any other dwelling units which have been approved in the previous two-year period, will not result in the conversion of five percent or more of the existing rental stock."
The reason given for this amendment is to ensure that sufficient affordable rental housing is in place on a long-term basis, despite the fact that the existing rental vacancy rate is over 10 percent with no relief in sight, and landlords can hardly give away their units.
Of course, the real reason why this amendment came to the table is a concern by Council that the city will lose $2 million in tax revenue due to an acceleration of condo conversion applications. As explained previously on this website, the tax rate for apartment buildings over 6 units in Windsor is almost three times the single residential rate. This is one of the reasons a multi-national corporation like Boardwalk is applying to convert all of its apartment buildings in Windsor. Once converted, taxes revert to the single-family residential rate.
The real irony, as I outlined in my arguments against the amendment last night, is that Boardwalk has stated that it has no intention of selling its individual units after the conversion (Ontario law does not require it), so the rental units will not decline due to its particular conversions.
Since the five-percent rule will not kick in for another two years, Boardwalk and other big apartment buildings have plenty of time to convert. The big building owners can do so since they have the money to pay the exhorbitant application fees recently set by Council. So our planning department can expect a rush of applicants coming through the door in the near future.
The small independents who live in Windsor and are suffering under the high vacancy environment will be the big losers. The walk-ups and smaller buildings will continue to pay the high rates, will not be able to afford the high application and lawyers fees for conversions, and then will have to compete against the Boardwalks in two years' time. Their doors will be padlocked and the number of rental units will be in freefall.
As I suggested last night, the city has just cut off its nose to spite its face, thanks to this incredibly wrong-headed public policy.
Readers have left 2 comments. No.1 Untitled
I completely agree with your sentiments. Seems The-Tail is still wagging the dog. If you were the ONLY "NAY" vote out of 10, the recent goings-on at Council smacks of nothing short of Dictatorship/Extreme Socialism that one thought died with the U.S.S.R. No.2 Untitled
My hat off to Boardwalk -- they told us why they are converting to condo. There should be an equal and level planning field and those changes need to come from council and province.
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