REZONINGS - Surplus Lands Program for Affordable Housing

The Town of Yarmouth has been working with non-profit housing providers to provide surplus Town lands for projects that have an affordable housing component. This program will use funding to refine and formalize the existing process by identifying priority sites and making the sites ‘shovel-ready’. Program components include identifying, prioritizing, and advertising a list of potential sites, creating policy and protocol on the disposal of Town owned lands for affordable housing, and pre-zoning the sites to allow multi-residential uses.

To this point approximately 15 Town-owned lots have been identified as potential candidates. While additional due-diligence is still required, the following four lots are proposed to be rezoned to allow for a wider range of housing and modest density increases:

• 11 Tooker St (Removed on July 8, 2025)
• 56 Tooker St
• 37 Argyle St
• 22 Chester St
• 4 Bond St

As the Town continues to assess developability of these lots (site servicing capacity, for example) the list may be adjusted before Council is asked to make a final decision of the intended rezonings.

This Town-initiated rezoning of the above noted Town-owned lands is a necessary step to implement ‘Initiative #1’ of the Council-approved ‘Housing Action Plan’ designed to increase housing units in Yarmouth. The Housing Action Plan is associated with and funded by the Government of Canada Housing Accelerator Fund.

NOTE: The proposed rezonings do not guarantee that redevelopment of the identified lots will actually occur. The proposed modest increases in allowable number of residential units is designed to eliminate otherwise necessary planning approvals steps and thereby make the development approval process simpler to navigate for affordable housing providers.