Update: July 2022 | The City’s Housing Directions Study Phase 2: Housing Strategy was presented to City Council on March 22, 2022 (PBD-2022-18). Council received and endorsed the Strategy and directed Staff to begin implementation through an Official Plan Amendment including consultation with the community. The Housing Strategy is set out in 21 theme-based actions that includes new policy directions, programs and tools that will work together in the short, medium, and long term to help achieve the City’s 40% affordability target for all new built housing.
The draft amendment to the Official Plan aims to:
- Update policies to provide opportunities for the achievement of affordable housing targets, promote a greater diversity of housing types, ensure a healthy supply of rental units and provide a framework of tools to implement these policies.
- Creation and monitoring of second units.
- Clearly define the City’s role and responsibility in supporting housing affordability.
- Introduce a policy to review all surplus municipal lands for housing suitability.
You can see the draft amendment here.
Please see our Notice of Open House and Public Meeting or meeting dates and how to submit your comments on the draft amendment.
Project Background
The City of Niagara Falls is working to comprehensively address how to provide a range of affordable housing throughout the City through the development of a Housing Directions Strategy. Overall, this project will identify the current housing situation, analyze future demographic trends, estimate future housing needs, identify housing gaps and provide recommendations to address these gaps. This work is being undertaken and led by Dillon Consulting Limited and Tim Welch Consulting.
Through quantitative and qualitative analysis of data, and public and stakeholder input, the Housing Directions Strategy will provide the City with a complete picture of the housing needs of the community and will assist the City in making strategic decisions respecting housing moving forward.
