Leamington approves proposal for housing development on former secondary school lands

Leamington has accepted a proposal for attainable housing development on the former Leamington District Secondary School lands at 125 Talbot Street West.

At their regular meeting of council this week, councillors voted unanimously in favour of a proposal submitted by Amico Properties Inc. in connection with the development of attainable housing.

In July 2020, the Municipality purchased the former high school property to encourage its development to address the current housing shortage in Leamington.

Then in January of 2022 council gave the green light for moving forward with the project, and an RFP was issued this past January. 

The preliminary concept plan includes two six-storey apartment buildings, with 95 and 105 units, respectively, for a total of 200 apartment units and 105 townhome units for a project total of 305 dwelling units.

All apartment units are designed to be accessible rental units. 

The townhome units are 2.5 storeys in height, with some accessible units included, and they will all be owned. 

The concept plan also includes a central park area, a smaller parkette around the central mailbox, and a daycare building.

The proposal indicates that 30 per cent of the dwellings will be attainable units.

Mayor Hilda MacDonald says Amico has also partnered with Habitat for Humanity and the Bridge Youth Resource Centre.

"So we feel like we've got wonderful partners at the table, a local company with history of beautiful builds, and certainly sustainable housing," she continued. "We couldn't be more pleased about the proposal and that's why council voted unanimously in favour of it."

The project is planned to be built out in two phases.

The first will be the construction of one apartment building and approximately 32 of the townhomes, as well as the daycare, and the second will be the balance of the development, including the majority of the attainable dwelling units.

MacDonald says Leamington, like most communities in the country these days, has a need for more housing and especially of the affordable kind.

She says the municipality has always been a community where immigrants and refugees have come to since back in the 1940's, and they also have an influx of 8,000 migrant workers.

"Not all of the housing can be farm, so the farms purchase houses mostly in the core, so that also reduces the housing stock. And then like everyone else who lives on a lake, we have local people and folks from other regions who buy homes for things like Airbnb."

MacDonald says that adds competition to the housing stock as well.

The applicants will have some processes and procedures to accomplish over the next few months, and MacDonald says they're hoping that demolition will start on the old high school next spring.

"And then once all of those things get into place we're hoping that by next fall at the latest we'll start seeing some major progress. Then who knows how long it'll take, but folks will be able to put their names forward and the market rate units will be available through real estate," she said.

If the demand is there, officials believe the project can be built out in three years, but it's possible that the project could extend to five years.

Following the execution of the Agreement of Purchase and Sale, Amico and Leamington will begin working through the development approval process as well as the application for a minor variance and site plans as required.

Council and the public will have the opportunity to review and comment on the proposed development throughout the process.

MacDonald says they're also looking at potential for the property across the street, which was formerly a parking lot for the high school.