Winter and Spring Planning News

Spring is in the air after a busy winter at Planning Services during which hundreds of new units moved through to approvals and we put forward new considerations for policy changes to simplify and expedite new housing creation. Read on to learn more about the applications and new amendments put forward by Planning Services to incentivize and expedite approvals for new housing units. 
 
Despite exceeding our Provincial Housing Target of issuing 800 building permits in 2023, our vacancy rate, which is the percentage of rental homes that are not inhabited, actually fell. Over the past ten years the Kingston Census Metropolitan Area, which includes Kingston but also the Township of South Frontenac, Township of Frontenac Islands and Loyalist Township, has had an average vacancy rate of 1.9 per cent. The rate in 2023 was 0.8 per cent according to a rental market report completed by the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. Kingston’s vacancy rate is the lowest vacancy rate for a Census Metropolitan Area in Ontario. By comparison, a healthy vacancy rate is considered to be three per cent. We continue to examine ways to make housing approvals more efficient to bring needed units to market. 
 
New staffing changes will also provide quicker service delivery to our technical review and respond to the increasingly more complex and larger applications. 
 
We hope that you and your families have a wonderful start to spring. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to anyone in Planning Services.  

James Bar 
Manager, Development Approvals 
jbar@cityofkingston.ca