The potential for more affordable housing won over Chatham-Kent councillors.
At their meeting last night, council members voted 11 to 5 in favour of purchasing the former St. Ursula School Site at 426 Lacroix Street for $1,699,999.
“I’m hopeful that either the private sector or the non-for-profit sector will come forward with something,” said Chief Administrative Officer Michael Duben.
“We are going to have to meet them halfway. They don’t make money off affordable housing. We are trying to figure out a way, and we are reaching out for ideas from them. ‘Here is some land, what is the best you can do with it’ so we can have some affordable housing in our community. And hopefully there will be some takers.”
Councillors Michael Bondy, Ryan Doyle, Amy Finn, Rhonda Jubenville, and John Wright voted against the purchase, citing the municipality’s growing list of properties that have yet to be developed.
“We definitely need it,” said Ward 2 representative Doyle, “but we have a lot of places that are on the go or in the process, and all of them still need millions of dollars in funding to get there. I don’t think this is the best use of our money at this point.”
Councillor Carmen McGregor referenced the bigger picture when deciding to purchase these parcels of land.
“We all know it’s not happening next week,” said C. McGregor.
“We don’t know what incentive programs the government is going to bring upon us that might make this very lucrative and have it shovel-ready and ready to go. I’m just happy you are bringing this to us and that we can maybe get this into a state that we can make it viable and desirable for possibly somebody to bring in and build some affordable housing.”
The next steps for the property will be to tender the demolition of the school building and then release a Request for Expression of Interest for the site to be redeveloped into affordable housing, with a report coming back to council in 2026.
