The Thunder Bay Housing Lands Need Study & Strategy (the Housing Study) provides a wealth of information about housing needs in our city. The Housing Study, commissioned by the City, was prepared by HTFC Planning & Design. According to Corporate Report #171-2024 prepared May 17, 2024, the Housing Study will “guide development policy, Zoning By-law and Official Plan Review and staff recommendations for Planning Applications and infrastructure investments.”
The Housing Study is also reference in the City of Thunder Bay Housing Community Improvement Plan (the CIP) wherein it states:
“This Study and Strategy is the tool that will determine the focus of the CIP grants, based on the greatest housing need in the City of Thunder Bay.”
Nowhere in the Housing Study is there a recommendation that Community zoned lands like 791 Arundel St be used for development. In fact, the Housing Study concluded from the extensive community engagement conducted that:
“Greenfield development options were unpopular overall. Fewer than one in five (18%) supported new subdivisions beyond the existing urban area, and only 16% supported the idea of using existing greenspace if necessary.”
Why then, in 2025, not even a year later, did the City decide to completely disregard the Housing Study and its recommendations? Nothing, including estimated population counts, changed so dramatically in our city that there was a requirement to now sell off Community zoned lands.
The decision in 2025 by the City’s Growth-Development Services-Realty Services departments to propose selling CM zoned land is contrary to the recommendations in the Housing Study. The decision fails to comply with many of the tenets of the City’s Official Plan, CIP, Smart Growth Plan, Urban Design and Landscape Guidelines, and Net-Zero Strategy. It is also, quite frankly, poor urban planning.