Companies asking for the city’s help to clean up contaminated sites slated for redevelopment should be required to provide affordable housing units in exchange, Mayor Jim Watson said on April 5, 2016, after the finance committee approved the largest ever brownfield grant application.
“It’s not a question of being punitive. We’re actually being very helpful to these companies who are cleaning up sites, but I think there’s a bit of a quid pro quo where we want the companies to recognize there are over 10,000 people on a wait list for affordable housing and every project should have some component of affordable housing within it,” the mayor said.
The committee approved $15.8 million in tax and fee breaks for the Regional Group, which wants to transform the former Oblates land at 175 Main St. along the Rideau River into a new mixed-use community called Greystone Village.
The property has about 215,000 tonnes of contaminated soil that needs to be trucked to a dump over the next four years. Work has already started.