A group of Niagara-on-the-Lake residents conducted a detailed survey on seniors’ housing needs. The results of the survey were sent to NOTL politicians, including Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa. The Lake Report met with Zalepa to learn his feelings about the results of the survey. This is the second in a series of stories exploring the survey results and potential solutions to the problem.

Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa says Niagara-on-the-Lake needs more housing and support options for its aging population — and one solution could be finding town properties, or other suitable land, that could be developed to meet those needs.

There is the potential of a private or joint venture with the Town of NOTL to redevelop the former hospital site at 176 Wellington St., where Royal Oak Academy now operates.

But before council commits to anything, Zalepa said, it wants to identify community benefits and find out what residents want done with that property.

Council will be going through a process in the fall to create “a set of expectations around redevelopment” of the property, “before we go down the road of asking people what they want to do,” he said.

Housing for seniors, whether a retirement home or assisted living or a combination of both, is a viable option for the property, he said — and so is parking.

But before anything is done, he wants council to come up with a plan for the site, rather than just soliciting random proposals with no direction, as was done during the last term of council.

“We want to identify community benefits. So, I think that housing is one of them — I think. I need eight more councillors to feel that way,” he said.

“I believe in our (strategic) plan, the conversations we’ve had around the table — housing is priority. So I think that that site is a definite opportunity for this community to do something really well.”

“I think there are other community benefits that probably need to be married to that as well,” he added.

The redevelopment could include a joint venture, a full sale, partial development or a land lease, he said.

But whatever option it is, the community benefits need to be identified first.

“I think the past mistake they made was they went to ask people what they wanted to do, and I don’t think the community had committed to say what they wanted yet,” Zalepa said.

“So, they got a bunch of good ideas. And then, unfortunately, they failed to kind of pick one. I don’t know why — I wasn’t a part of that — but they didn’t pick one.”

He said he is in favour of housing, with the possibility of some acute care on-site.

The seniors housing survey results are a good example of seeing what the public might want done with the property, since the need for more housing is clear, he said.

There are also other parcels of land and other options for the town to explore, he said.

Some properties, such as the land behind Royal Elite Academy (formerly Niagara District Secondary School), could be ideal for housing development, but come with challenges.

That land specifically, he said, is in the Greenbelt and is not serviced, so developing it is difficult.

There are opportunities to review what land is part of the Greenbelt, he said, but that won’t happen for two years.

“There is a review where at some point the municipality has an opportunity to identify properties to pull out. That’s probably a good candidate. So that’ll go on our list,” he said, adding that he feels it is likely a good site for something like mixed senior housing.

“You could do a campus concept. You’ve already got a school that’s there anyway.”

Zalepa said the town is also just starting its recreation master plan review, during which the town will do an inventory of its assets.

“What do we own? What are we not maybe using the 100 per cent correctly? And how could it be repurposed to do something better?”

He said there are some parks and soccer fields that don’t get much use, which the town could turn into housing.

“So, what I’m hoping the review looks at is: are there some pieces of land that we’re just not leveraging enough? And can we repurpose that?”

Asked how many parks the town really needs, he said, “I’m gonna let the process tell me that.”

“There are other properties in town that I think would be really interesting, too. There are parcels owned by organizations such as churches and community organizations like the Lions Club and the Legion.”

Other municipalities have successfully redeveloped similar sites to produce housing.

“One of them was St. Catharines, really close, in Port Dalhousie — wonderful redevelopment of the Legion site. We’d love to help groups like that. But that’s private property. They’ve got to figure that out.”

He said there would be a public process for any disposition of town land.

“I think that all that is doable, with excess land that we own. So if it was identified that some of our land could be better leveraged, I think that we’d be really interested in properly doing that.”

The next step for the seniors housing group is to meet with some “key” staff people at the region and make a presentation to regional council and town council, he said.

“”We think those (three) things will help elevate the awareness of the issue in the public, because we get some attention, the media, it’ll get some attention with council, some discussion around that,” Zalepa said.

He said it’s also helpful in the town’s “formalization” of its official plan.

“I think some of this work really ties nicely into that. That’s going to give some policy direction on some larger parcels.”

That will also factor into the review of the town’s zoning bylaws.

In that sense, he said the seniors housing report is “really timely.”

“And the other thing, I hope it helps: sometimes our community has a really hard time having a sensible conversation around what’s needed,” he said.

“And I understand people resist change in form of housing. I get it and sometimes they came from other places that they saw some maybe not-so-good planning there. Maybe.”

“There’s no doubt this municipality needs variety in housing form going forward” and it needs it to be dispersed throughout the community, Zalepa added.

“It can’t be all in Glendale. Not everybody wants to live in Glendale. People want to live in Old Town, people want to live in Virgil, people want to live in St. Davids.”

So the town needs to figure out where it could be “and get some realistic expectations around that it’s going to look different than your single-family home.”

That’s not easy, he admits, but he hopes there can be a respectful a conversation about it.

“I really feel there’s a groundswell of support of people that go, ‘I get it. We need to do it.’ “

“It just needs to be fair in the community, but there’s going to be buildings around houses, because there has to be,” he added.

“And when I talk to people one-on-one, I really get the sense that people get that, they understand that, and they want their family members who live in this town to be able to stay in this town.”

He noted NOTL housing won’t be “affordable from a social housing perspective.”

“That’s where the hospital has an opportunity.”

Part 3: What do the developers say? If NOTL seniors have money for high-end accommodations and health care, why aren’t developers building it? What can the town do to help?