Residents get a little boisterous at Community Improvement Plan meeting

By Nicholas Grant

March 26th, 2026

BURLINGTON, ON

Local citizens and members of the business community gathered Tuesday in the Appleby Ice Centre to discuss amendments to Burlington’s Community Improvement Plan (CIP) and affordable housing.

The CIP is a series of policies aimed to incentivize developers and property owners to evolve Burlington’s urban areas and to create more diverse housing so that the city can keep up with housing demands.

The City of Burlington has expressed desire to diversify options and to build up what is considered the “Missing Middle Housing”. The missing middle housing are multi-unit buildings that fit somewhere in between single-family detached homes, and low-rise buildings. Some examples of missing middle housing include: duplexes, fourplexes and townhouses.

Ward 6 Councilor Angelo Bentivegna on the left and Director of Community Development Jamie Tellier talking to a resident.

The city recently received $21 million from the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), as well as an additional 3-4 million in funds for 2026. HAF is part of the federal initiative to increase the access to housing through local incentives. Burlington was one of such recipients of funding under the fund’s $4.4 billion budget.

Some attendees of the event expressed frustration with the lack of transparency and accountability for where the $21 million from HAF went, and whether the three to four million dollars allocated to the project for 2026 will make a difference in achieving the city’s housing goals.

The policy paper that supports much of the Community development planning

The housing target for Burlington is 29,000 units, a number city officials admit they are not on track to achieving.

“We want metrics,” one attendee said. “And we want realistic metrics… I’d rather know, I don’t need numbers floating around that have no meaning, and no relevance to what we’re doing and trying to accomplish”.

This feedback was heard loud and clear from the city’s housing staff, acknowledging that “We didn’t give you everything you need to know to understand this program. We’re working furiously” Manager of Policy and Community of the City of Burlington Alison Enns said.

One of the programs available and a highlight of the plan is the Missing Middle Affordable Grant Program. The program takes aim at purpose built multi unit affordable rentals by introducing a series of financial incentives for developers.

The financial incentives include waiving municipal permit fees, grants towards pre construction designs, and up to $10,000 per affordable unit built.

In order to be eligible for grants under this program, a building needs to have fifteen per cent of built units as affordable; the developer need only keep it at ‘affordable’ rates for a minimum of 10-15 years depending on the program, after which, they are free to charge market rates.

The city’s definition of what is affordable is based on the Development Charges Act. which classifies affordable as a unit where “Rent is no greater than 80 per cent of the average market rent”. For the City of Burlington this means ‘affordable’ rent for a one bedroom unit is $1,733 or less, with affordable ownership rates being a property sold for $484,000 or less.

It was a small audience with a lot of questions – many that weren’t answered. Manager of Policy and Community of the City of Burlington Alison Enns is in the front row, second from the right.

The city doesn’t intend to incorporate income testing to designate what is considered affordable.  Income testing, also known as a “Means Test” , determines whether a person is eligible for benefits from government programs based on income and wealth. It is used to assess who is in need, in order to determine the level of financial assistance needed.

“The objective is not solely affordable housing, It is the creation of housing”, Enns claimed. She urged other levels of government to step in “To deal with that deeper level of affordability”. She claims the city’s objective with the affordable housing initiative was to build on other programs. “We are very bit players on this”.

There’s a lot that remains to be seen about the city’s strategy and how it plans to reach its targets. They urge the community to get involved and engage with them. The last virtual open house takes place this Thursday, the 26th of March from 7-9 PM on Zoom.

Photo credits Nicholas Grant