Cambridge councillor not giving up on proposal for affordable housing over parking lots

Cambridge council may have voted down a proposal to explore building affordable housing above urban parking lots, but the councillor behind the idea still has plans to push it forward. 

At Tuesday night’s meeting, councillors debated a motion from Coun. Scott Hamilton asking staff to investigate if housing could be built on top of existing above-ground parking lots owned by the city.

Mayor Jan Liggett said she was concerned the work would take time away from other staff projects.

“This will go to the next stage where staff will be forced to stop or delay doing other work they are required to do. To pretend otherwise is false,” Liggett told those at the meeting.

Coun. Corey Kimpson said the deputy city manager had assured him “the motion as written is something that our staff are able to handle right now.”

If approved, staff would have been asked to create a report looking at whether the option was viable. The motion was narrowly defeated in a 5-4 vote.

Despite council’s decision, Hamilton said he’s received great support from academics, builders, businesses and the community.

“Every single walk of life, every background seems to see some promise in using what some describe as concrete wastelands, empty parking lots, putting them towards a greater public good,” he told CTV News Thursday.

He says he plans to take the idea to higher levels of government like the Region of Waterloo, the province and federal government.

Liggett said the housing work should be done on private lands by agencies like the YMCA and churches.

On Thursday, she said one church has already approached her office and offered to help.

While Liggett supports affordable housing, she said she can’t get behind the idea to build it above downtown parking lots.

“By giving away air rights, we must understand that not all parking spaces will be retained with all the pillar supports, walls and mechanicals needed,” Liggett said, in part, in an emailed statement.

Hamilton argues he doesn’t want to change every lot in the city, but there’s options available.

“There’s some lots I’m sure that are at capacity all the time and it wouldn’t work,” he said. “But there are a lot of lots like this one over here on Wellington Street that are almost never full.”

A planning expert from the University of Waterloo thinks Hamilton’s idea is a great way to use existing infrastructure, reduce low-density sprawl into rural areas and support transit use.

“It makes a great deal of sense for the municipality if you can get more density in the urban area, if you do it by making smarter use of land like parking lots that are perhaps either surplus or underused,” said Mark Season, director of the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning.

Hamilton said around 8,000 people are on the waitlist for affordable housing in Waterloo Region and 1,500 families in Cambridge are on a waitlist looking for housing.

The Cambridge Shelter Corporation said more action is needed to address the housing crisis.

“It was disappointing to hear that it was voted down,” executive director Wayne Paddick said.