City of Sarnia staff have announced a way to spend money the city received for exceeding its 2023 housing target.
Sarnia council will consider re-allocating the $400,000 from the Ontario Building Faster Fund to the construction of the Wellington Street extension to facilitate housing development.
Mayor Mike Bradley thinks the idea, to be considered during Monday's regular meeting, has merit.
"This is a big direction for the city. We can't grow to the north, west, or south... we can only grow to the east," said Bradley.
"Because we were leading in this region on housing development, the province sent us $400,000 for the Building Faster Fund and we're reallocating that money to extend services, along with a $7.9 million grant from the province's Housing Enabled Water Systems fund to push Wellington (Street) through to Blackwell (Side Road) with road and watermain," he added.
The 1.5 kilometre extension, estimated to cost $20.6 million, is part of ongoing work to support housing in Development Area 2 (DA2).
"We've approved the secondary plan for that area that starts to scope out how you would build in that region, but by putting the infrastructure in we're starting to accelerate so that we can start to see more growth in the housing market in that area," he said.
Bradley said beyond what council has done in the Bright's Grove area, this is the city's designated spot for growth.
"The research park is there, there are other businesses there. The plan has always been, for a long time going back years, to extend Wellington, across Modeland, over to Blackwell. So, this starts that whole process of extending it. Putting in the water lines, putting in the road... and that in turn will lead to development," said Bradley.
While the funds may be carried forward into future years, city staff said in their report that all expenditures for the 2024 program year must be completed by December 31, 2024. The year-end expenditure report is due to the Province by February 4, 2025.