Grey County plans to do some site assessment and preparation to see if two parcels of land in Durham and Markdale could be used for affordable housing.
County Senior Policy Planner Liz Buckton explains, “Under the surplus lands project we’ve been looking at some sites that the County owns.”
The County intends to include $130,000 from the One Time Funding Reserve in the proposed 2026 budget for site preparation and de-risking activities.
Buckton says, “When we talk about the site preparation and de-risking, really we’re looking at activities that we might do before we make a decision to surplus or offer the lands for housing purposes.”
“That would eliminate risks on the site to a developer that might want to engage,” says Buckton, who notes doing that, offers greater certainty about development potential by removing particular uncertainties through archaeology studies or environmental studies.”
“We had some outreach with some development community members to try and understand what might make an opportunity for a site acquisition or partnership attractive to them and conversely what might be a barrier to them engaging,” says Buckton.
Her report adds, “This recommendation was informed by development sector representatives to be a key pre-condition around any future offering for sale, lease, or partnership for housing purposes.”
She says, “The ‘unknowns’ about the site– especially for non-profit housing providers would be something that they would really hope to see addressed before any site offering would be made because typically those organizations have less capacity to deal with risk associated with development — both people power and financially as well.”
In Durham, the land is located between Concession 1 and Rock Street. The work would include $10,000 for archaeological assessments, $75,000 for environmental site assessments and $30,000 for an estimate for extension of servicing.
In Markdale, the site is off Main Street West. $15,000 would be used for high level design work to inform land need estimates for storm water management.
Once that work is done, the County could decide if the land is suitable for housing and possibly declare it surplus so it could be developed by a housing provider.
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