Sparks fly as motion to use city-owned land in Oshawa, Ontario sent for Official Plan review

Developing a clear strategy to use city-owned land for affordable housing in Oshawa to help fight the housing crisis did not get the support one councillor wanted, with council voting 6-3 Monday to send the idea for an Official Plan review.

The proposal, brought forward by Ward 4 Councillor Derek Giberson, sparked plenty of fireworks on social media before and after the meeting, with Regional Councillor Brian Nicholson expressing concerns that many of his constituents were under the assumption that not supporting Giberson’s motion meant the city opposed providing more affordable housing.

“I know many people are concerned with the affordable housing crisis,” Nicholson said. “Today’s discussion and vote made it clear on the record that Oshawa will continue to lead the way in Durham in securing much needed affordable housing projects to meet the ever-growing need.”

Giberson’s concern was about the length of time an Official Plan would take to address the issue – citing a two to three-year delay – but Commissioner of Economic Development Services Commissioner Anthony Ambra said Monday he expects the review to be complete by the first quarter of 2027, which is at most 16 months away.

Giberson said his motion to direct staff to engage the public and stakeholders to use municipally-owned lands as leverage in achieving objectives for housing affordability was not going to solve the housing crisis by itself, but delaying ideas that have worked in many other municipalities wasn’t a viable solution either.

Council approved an application to the federal Housing Accelerator Fund last September with numerous housing activation initiatives, including a proposed initiative to create a program for the redevelopment of surplus city-owned lands and acquisition of lands for housing projects.

The application, however, was unsuccessful.

That prompted Giberson to expedite the process, with the motion brought to committee earlier this month where it was recommended the idea be sent for an Official Plan review.

“We are in a housing affordability crisis,” he said. “There’s a lot of work we need to do get out of the crisis. This one thing is not going to fix everything in Oshawa but what we don’t need is to delay it.”

Giberson acknowledged the city has sold or transferred land to be used for affordable housing in the past, but it has been on a “piecemeal, one-off basis” and wants staff to develop a clear direction on how they should be used in the future.

Nicholson said the city the city has already supported plenty of affordable housing initiatives in the recent past and took umbrage in a social media post over any allegations Oshawa was not committed to securing affordable housing for its residents.

“Oshawa was one of the first municipalities to do this and continues to support affordable housing by transferring land to Durham Region to support more housing units in our city,” he said.

He also cited a massive 10-year building program with the Region of Durham called Durham At Home that has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to create more than 1,000 new affordable housing units, with four projects in Oshawa and another in Whitby.

“If more funds can be sent through federal and provincial programs to Durham and local municipalities we can do even more.”

Council did unanimously approve an amendment to the original motion to exclude parkland, open space and environmentally sensitive lands from the surplus lands review.

“Council gave clear direction that any review could not consider these types of lands,” Nicholson said.