OLDS — A town councillor balked at wording regarding affordable housing in the town’s newly updated Municipal Development Plan (MDP), fearing it could commit the town to spending money it may not have.
As a result, council approved revising the wording to say the town “may” partner with private, public and non-profit organizations in the creation of affordable housing and special needs housing.”
Previously the document said the town “intends” to partner with those entities to do so.
The matter came up as council discussed the MDP during its Jan. 25 meeting.
“I think it should say ‘may partner’ or ‘should partner.’ Do we intend to partner? Like if we had no funding we obviously wouldn’t be partnering,” said Coun. Heather Ryan.
"I’m concerned about the wording intends. I know we’ve been using ‘shall,’ ‘should’ and ‘may’ throughout the whole document. Or ‘encourage,’” she added. “I’m just worried about that particular word and how it sounds and I think while I do agree it’s important, the need for affordable housing, I’m not sure, depending on what timing involved, whether or not we would even have budgetary funds.
“I’m not sure how strong a word ‘intends’ is as well. I’m not sure if it ties our hands or not.”
She asked Parkland Community Planning Services director Craig Teal for his thoughts.
"I do take the point,” Teal said. “I think ‘intends’ would probably be a stronger word than ‘may.’ He said the word ‘should’ could be another alternative.
In the end, council passed an amendment drafted by Teal that changed the wording to ‘may’ from ‘intends.’
In the MDP, the phrase “affordable housing” is defined as “appropriately designed dwelling units that are accessible to households below Olds’ median income without spending more than 30 percent of household income on housing-related costs.”
