Mississauga council approves new housing strategy
Mississauga’s city council has approved an ambitious action plan designed to increase the supply of housing, streamline development and building approvals, and improve affordability.
Growing Mississauga includes five goals and 23 actions designed to boost the city’s housing stock, and identifies where the municipal government needs support from the public and private sectors to meet an accelerated pace of development.
“With this new plan, the City of Mississauga is once again sending a clear message: We welcome growth and are ready to get more housing built for everyone who wants to call Mississauga home,” said Mayor Bonnie Crombie. “Growing Mississauga demonstrates the city’s commitment to taking action on housing. It also shows our willingness to work with the provincial government to help meet their goal of building 1.5 million new homes over 10 years and with our industry partners who are ultimately responsible for getting the homes built.”
The city says the plan builds on the success of previous housing plans which have positioned Mississauga to meet the province’s 2051 growth target, helped improve housing affordability, streamlined approval processes and led to the issuance of a record number of building permits in 2022.
For example, the city issued a record of more than 6,400 building permits in 2022. Over the next four years, it aims to further bolster the housing supply by reducing exclusionary zoning to allow more multi-unit buildings to be constructed in low-density areas, by encouraging more transit-oriented development by enacting updated zoning policies for Major Transit Station Areas, and by working with the province to secure the downtown loop and enhanced service on the Milton GO line.
“Increasing housing supply and affordability has been a long-standing priority for Mississauga, particularly over the last decade as we’ve navigated the transition from our suburban roots to a thriving urban city,” said Andrew Whittemore, Commissioner of Planning and Building. “Mississauga is well positioned to accommodate about 246,000 new residential units – more than the 120,000 provincial housing target – but doing so will require significant and accelerated infrastructure investments. It will also require the development community to commit to funding and building the housing the city approves. Our plan is also contingent on support from the federal and provincial governments, as well as the development industry.
The city is also pushing forward with new processes to improve housing affordability, including bringing affordable housing units to new developments in major transit station areas, providing development charge and property tax relief to incentivize rental housing, and working with other levels of government to direct surplus lands to affordable housing.
Finally, the city is taking a series of actions to generate funding for any new infrastructure required by its new growth targets, including reviewing planning, building and development fees, and participating in the province’s financial audit to ensure it collects on any losses incurred by the province’s More Homes Built Faster Act.