Park Ex: City buys land for housing
The city has bought another lot in Park Ex with the intention of building social housing, but it still needs money from Quebec to put something up. Ottawa has put aside money for housing, but it has to pass through Quebec before Montreal gets any – and we know just how much the CAQ loves Montreal.
david155 06:15 on 2021-01-08 Permalink
Good project, even if it’ll be a while til it gets funded. Bigger problem is I look at that 22 unit number on such a large lot and wonder why we aren’t we talking about 100 units. Based on land acquisition, and what I know you can do with that site, 22 units there (depending on the mix) should end up coming in at ~$275,000/unit if we’re lucky.
This article is inaccurate (by leaving stuff out or saying it in a weird way) in many respects about building in Montreal (including the impacts of activists, role of the province, and more) but is basically grounded in a realistic understanding of housing economics and, so, informative to the lay person on how costs actually work at a higher level of abstraction: https://www.city-journal.org/montreal-affordable-housing. The final section there (if you can call it a section) is the key takeaway, obviously.
The relationship to this eventual Parc-Ex project: these 22 units could be 100 units at no extra cost if we brought in a private promoter, gave him the exact amount of money the city/province intends to spend, and then got deed covenants on the 22 units, all on the condition that the city passed bylaws to nuke lot coverage maximums or setbacks, raised the height limits, etc.
There’s a strange sort of activist strain where many militants for affordable housing or anti-homeless or whatever – especially your Jaggi types – rail against capitalism, everyone in any position of authority, all people with jobs, etc. But then they fundamentally accept the completely absurd zoning and other restrictions imposed by the city and boroughs as if they’re natural, normal, proper, and – in some sense – immutable. But they’re not! Especially on these empty(ish) lots and especially when we’re talking government-backed housing, we should be building like crazy.