Building options abound in St. Marys as Stonetown looks to ‘exhaust’ all options to offer affordability

A new video series shows St. Marys’ openness to alternate forms of building housing and accommodations for residents. Sean Irvine explains.

A small town in our region wants its residents and developers to know it is open to new concepts in housing to combat affordability and availability.

St. Marys has released a series of online videos designed as both a tutorial and a testimony to accommodate residents.

“Well, we’ve always had the same population in town. I didn’t think it was ever going to change,” said a long-time resident at the start of one segment.

But like many southwestern Ontario communities, St. Marys has experienced a boom over the last decade, adding pressure on prices and availability.

To respond, community leaders have broadened options beyond traditional housing concepts.

“So, that everybody knows what is out there today [in St. Marys] outside, single-family detached or towns or semi-detached and stuff like that,” said Grant Brouwer, director of Building an Development Services.

The town highlights some of its earliest success stories in the video series.

Stories explain how developers are adding services for secondary units in new homes, how new residents are creating multi-generational spaces, and how some long-term residents are staying put by being innovative.

In one case, a senior couple revealed that they sold their home to their son and then renovated their garage to be theirs.

“I just felt terrible, so I said, ‘Why don’t you buy our place?’” explained Dave MacPherson. “You know, we’d often talked about the garage, about how it makes a nice little, tiny house.”

MacPherson later explained how the project went smoothly, primarily because the town streamlined the process.

Brouwer concedes it is a dramatic shift from a decade ago.

“Pre-pandemic, we would never have been looking at this, at all in any shape, form or fashion, because it wasn’t probably the right fit,” he explained.

But the ‘fit’ has changed, and Brouwer believes St. Marys has no choice but to ‘exhaust all possibilities in housing.’

Other small Ontario centres have contacted him to inquire how the Stonetown is pushing its housing agenda ahead so quickly.

“Once we tell people, ‘Hey, yes, this is permitted in town,’ a lot of people go, ‘Wow! That is permitted. Hey, I’m really interested in that!’” said Brouwer.