Kingston city council approves sale of land for future housing

After three straight days of budget talks last week, a lighter Kingston council meeting was in store Tuesday night.

But there were still some significant moves made around the horseshoe.

City council decided to approve the sale of two parcels of land, one on Division Street and the other on Compton Street, to be used for housing.

“With the proceeds from those sales, we’ll be able to work with another agency somewhere else in the city, so that it’s spread out across the city,” Coun. Lisa Osanic said.

And spreading housing out seems to be the name of the game. In the proposal for the parcel of land on Division Street, there must be a minimum of five affordable units.

Osanic questioned if five was enough, and staff said the objective is not to concentrate all affordable units in one part of the city.

“Right now it is all concentrated in the Rideau Heights area, essentially. We need to spread it out to the central part of Kingston, the west end and the east end of Kingston.”

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Another item that everyone on council agreed on was to allow the street patio program to happen again this summer.

“It’s going to support local business, especially after two years of the pandemic,” Coun. Jimmy Hassan said. “Everybody is suffering, but not at the level it was two years ago. We need to bring new ideas, a new concept to the businesses, so we can start reviving and start moving forward.”

So for those who prefer to eat outside and soak up the sun, it looks like there should be plenty of options in downtown Kingston this summer.