Banff housing project to add 90 affordable units

CBC

2 days ago

Banff's latest affordable housing project is taking shape.
An open house on Tuesday gave residents a look at the upcoming 90-unit project at 50 Wolf St., near the Bow River and Banff Mineral Springs Hospital. It's expected to be completed in late 2027.
Banff Mayor Corrie DiManno said once the project is finished, it will provide much-needed below-market housing for residents.
"This housing development is the difference between people leaving our community and staying in our community," she said. "It's really exciting that this opens up more opportunities to stay in Banff and build a life here."
Of the 90 units, there will be 32 studio rental units, 43 one-bedroom rental units and 15 two-bedroom units available to purchase through the Banff Housing Corporation. There will also be 8,000 square feet of community space on the ground floor, including a kitchen, dining hall, lounge space and meeting space.
The cost will be $41 million, with $3.3 million coming from the federal government's Housing Accelerator Fund, $6.4 million from the provincial government and $5 million from the Wim and Nancy Pauw Foundation, totalling $14.7 million. The remainder will be debt financed and cost-recovered.
DiManno noted the location is close to downtown and public transit, which is free in the townsite for residents.
"We're meeting two of our biggest needs in this project: one is housing and two is community space," she said. "I'm so excited for it to come to life and for Banffites to be able to enjoy it."
The Banff Housing Corporation has a waitlist of about 400 for units to own, while there are about 320 people on the rental waitlist. It has 260 ownership units and 133 rental units in its portfolio.
Policy changes spur residential projects
The projected housing shortfall in Banff is 700 to 1,000 residential units and the vacancy rate is below one per cent.
Banff has a federally legislated land cap of about four square kilometres. It means new housing comes from redevelopment of existing space.
Council approved a series of land use changes last year, such as removing parking restrictions, increasing allowable density in neighbourhoods and reducing permitting fees.
Alison Gerrits, the Town of Banff's director of community services, said there is still a shortfall of housing, but council-approved policy changes last year have spurred development applications.
"We recognize our shortfall is still significant and we need to rely on other projects that will be happening in the community," she said.
Darren Enns, the town's director of planning and environment, told council at its Monday meeting that applications for new housing units "remain strong" at an estimate of more than 300.
"Almost all of these applications are using one or multiple of the changes council made to the land use bylaw," he said. "In other words, these 300 units that are in the pipeline would not have come if it weren't for changes."