Housing construction sites are becoming more and more common in Kingston, Ont., and a city staff report says that activity will need to ramp up in the coming years to keep up with anticipated growth.
According to new projections, the city could see population rise by as much as 32 per cent by the year 2051.
“This is a really exciting time for the city,” Commissioner of Growth and Development Services, Paige Agnew said.
“We’ve obviously seen dynamic growth, we’re evolving and changing as a city in a really exciting way, and the most important thing is we have to plan for it.”
The city is planning to grow to 197,000 residents, or 220,000 when you factor in the student population, which would be the current ‘medium growth’ forecast.
Along with housing, employment opportunities will also have to increase. According to the Greater Kingston Chamber of Commerce, local businesses are ready for growth but the lack of housing is holding them back.
“Everyone wants to come live here, it’s a great community. But it’s finding them the spot to be able to live,” Chamber CEO, Karen Cross said.
“That’s the biggest challenge.”
The Chamber says the city is already behind schedule in terms of building new housing units, which is why they’re asking for council to pursue a ‘high’ growth scenario.
“We’re already in a deficit, absolutely,” Cross said. “We’re in agreement that we need to grow, we just want to grow a little bit faster.”
But City Hall worries overshooting the goal could be costly and wants to take a more conservative approach, which would mean building nearly 30,000 housing units to meet its goal.
“That’s why we’re rolling out new ideas that we’ve never tried before, like giving businesses the ability to construct new housing for their own employees,” Kingston Mayor Bryan Paterson said.
“That’s not something that has ever been contemplated before but we’re really trying to think outside the box.”
The forecast relies on recent census and migration data, incorporating trends like remote work, immigration policy, and post-secondary education changes.
There will also be a review of urban boundary expansion requests in the upcoming Official Plan, to explore different areas the city could leverage to build new housing in a bid to meet increased demand.
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