BANCROFT: It’s a move that will help both a local – and provide-wide – housing crunch.
Mayor Paul Jenkins spoke to Moose FM to update the status of several housing projects.
He said work on three separate buildings at the former Bancroft Public School ground is underway and will lead to about 100 units.
The Bancroft Ridge project, being planned near Chemaushgon Road, will add about 100 more.
And the recently announced Fountain Hills project on Mill Street will add yet another 100.
The housing units being built into the new library project plus a retirement residence that’s planned next to the curling club, will eventually make the number top 400.
Jenkins said lack of housing has been a problem in Bancroft in the past, but the town is hardly alone. An affordable housing task force report says Ontario must build 1.5 million homes across the province over the next 10 years.
He also said housing developers are beginning to see the town as an attractive place to build. That’s good news, given that a shortage of housing has long been considered a problem in north Hastings County.
He said the town has worked hard to get a reputation as a pro-development community.
“Developers are coming here, because we’re easy to deal with,” he said. “We’re probably one of the easiest municipalities to deal with – and they’ll tell you that. We have the right policies in place to make it advantageous for them to come here.”