‘Stings a little bit’: What’s going on with the Rows Corners housing project in Elizabethtown-Kitley?
Officials in Elizabethtown-Kitley still have their eye on an ambitious $35 million housing project at Rows Corners Fairgrounds, but they’ve hit some bumps along the road.
The ambition of the proposal is to create over 140 rental units dispersed among eight apartment buildings at the property, which will unlock a significant amount of affordable housing for workers moving to Brockville to fill in the job vacancies within local industries.
Mayor Brant Burrows told Brockvilleist he’s excited and optimistic about the opportunity, but there are some significant limitations that they must overcome, not the least of which is the lack of sewer access and water services.
The preexisting buildings in the area are operating off of a well and septic system, leading to the township applying for a HEWS grant to put pipes in the ground for water and sewer. Although the township has established a willing supply partner in Brockville, they were not successful in their first grant application.
However, Burrows confirmed the provincial government has opened up a second intake for that same grant stream, and they plan to apply again. While the initial proposal timeline predicted residents moving in by summer 2025, Mayor Burrows told Brockvilleist they have had to accept that they are nowhere close to that.
“We were dedicated to moving at what the developer calls ‘Elon Musk time’, but we have slowly been making our way through the planning process with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing. So that is inching forward, and there are no real problems, per se, but gosh, it just takes time to go through the steps that are required.”
The mayor continued, “I’ll be honest when I read the headlines and I see the interviews, the premier says, ‘Look we’re in a housing crisis, all hands on deck.’ I think the more accurate message is, that planning takes 100 steps, and they all take time, and we can’t do it in two weeks. It still stings a little bit, because we’re out here seeing all the same news stories as well, and we’re trying our hardest. I would have shovels in the ground this year, but you know, it’s not going to happen.”
The mayor was candid about the fact that some neighbours who live in the area have been openly opposed to the development. He explains that while he understands their concerns, he assures them he is doing his best to mitigate and minimize the impacts on the neighbours. “They’re worried because they seem to already have water drainage problems from ditches as it is now and probably ahead of that, the biggest concern is they’re all on wells.”
This is why the township is so determined to find funding to build a pipe to allow the development access to city water. If they cannot do so, developers would have to drill eight meters down in the Canadian Shield to create a new well and sewer system, which could cost significantly more money.
“The supply water can run much closer to the surface and we could save millions of dollars off the cost of the pipe-pump project,” Burrows explained.
The mayor said he’s passionate about seeing this project come to fruition, as it is a tangible step forward in the province’s plea for more affordable housing, He told Brockvilleist, “We’re under no delusions of grandeur that this is an all-encompassing solution to the region’s entire housing problem. It is one piece of the puzzle, and it is designed on the idea that we’ve got several hundred vacancies in our industries and in our service industries. The level suite is actually priced so that somebody on minimum wage in a hospitality service job could actually afford to live there.”
Brockvilleist will continue to provide more information on this story as it becomes available.