A core housing report, at last

Producing a downtown housing report in Winnipeg is a lot like the Winter Olympics: It takes four years of anticipation to see it finally happen.

A downtown housing strategy city council ordered almost four years ago will finally see the light of day this spring, say city officials who insist increasing population density is one of Winnipeg's priorities.

"Definitely, there was a gap," said Barry Thorgrimson, the city's economic development manager.

"But this allowed us to work with stakeholders and gather a lot of valuable information. It's been a growing and learning experience and we have a better report because of it."

In 2006, in the wake of Mayor Sam Katz's Winnipeg City Summit, council's housing committee asked staff to figure out ways to increase the number of people who live downtown.

Coun. Russ Wyatt (Transcona), the housing committee chairman in 2006, commissioned a report about the downtown's existing housing stock as well as ways the city could stimulate downtown apartment and condo development.

Several drafts of this report circulated among organizations in 2008, but a final report was never made public.

Then David Stansen, the manager of housing development at the time, left the city for a job in Ottawa.

Now, new housing development manager Stan Dueck is working on a resurrected version of this report that will be presented to council's downtown development committee in March or April, Thorgrimson said.

According to a draft version of the report from 2008, the city could stimulate downtown housing by developing an inventory of potential sites -- existing buildings and empty lots -- and put a single agency in charge of promoting these prospects.

The city should also tweak its existing package of downtown development incentives, most notably its existing mixed-use/multi-family tax credit program. That program, which offers municipal property tax credits to developers of inner-city residential buildings, will become more powerful this spring, when the provincial government unveils a financing program that will also offer developers education-tax credits.

Downtown housing is also a part of Our Winnipeg, the city's new long-term planning blueprint, said Coun. Justin Swandel (St. Norbert), city council's downtown development chairman.

But neither Swandel nor current housing chairman Coun. Mike Pagtakhan (Point Douglas) say they have seen a draft of the downtown housing report.

Wyatt, meanwhile, said he's not satisfied with the public service's explanation as to why it took almost four years to prepare the report.

"In October 2008, I was given assurances it was only weeks away from being released," he said, claiming downtown development agency CentreVenture and both the Downtown and Exchange District Business Improvement Zones were upset the report was shelved.

"It's unacceptable a report important to the community and crucial to fostering opportunities downtown was not made public," he said. "This is symbolic of the fact the downtown and downtown housing in particular is not a priority of this mayor and is not a priority of the executive policy committee."

Wyatt was kicked off the powerful EPC in 2009 and is mulling a mayoral run.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca

Three ways to stimulate downtown housing

Recommendations from a 2008 version of Winnipeg's Downtown Housing Strategy, a report city council commissioned in 2006 that is finally due for public release this spring:

1. One-stop shop: Establish a single office to promote downtown development and deal with enquiries from developers.

2. Build a list: Create a list of downtown buildings and empty lots to redevelop as housing sites.

3. More incentives: Modify existing incentives for developers and work with the federal and provincial governments to secure more sources of cash.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 16, 2010 B1