At the Regular Public Meeting of July 22, 2025, Town of Tecumseh Council had a final opportunity to vote on the ultimate outcome of the Housing Accelerator Fund Initiative 1, which deals with allowing 4 units as of right. Tecumseh’s solution for meeting this requirement was to provide options for allowing Additional Residential Units (ARUs) to be built on properties across the municipality. The options were presented as follows:
Option A re: Up to three ARUs will be permitted on lots with a minimum 24.4 metre (80 foot) frontage;
Option B re: Up to three ARUs will be permitted on lots with a minimum 18.0 metre (60 foot) frontage;
Option C re: Up to three ARUs will be permitted on all lots with a minimum of 30% of the lot area will be landscaped open space;
Option D re: Up to three ARUs will be permitted on all lots with the minimum landscaped open space requirement of the given zone to apply; or
Option E re: Up to three ARUs will be permitted on lots with a minimum 18.0 metre (60 foot) frontage and with a minimum of 35% of the lot area will be landscaped open space.
I chose to recommend Option E to amend the Official Plan across the municipality with those parameters mentioned above. Ultimately Council opposed this recommendation, by a vote of 4 opposed, 3 in support.
I am disappointed, but respect the democratic process and the direction of Council. I will continue to advocate for gentle density and smart options for growth in the Town of Tecumseh. More to come.
For posterity, and while they are a matter of public record, I record here my comments on my support of Option E and HAF Initiative 1:
“In favour of Option E: Up to three ARUs will be permitted on lots with a minimum 18.0 metre (60 foot) frontage and with a minimum of 35% of the lot area will be landscaped open space.
Let me address the reality of what this means. This isn’t about apartment buildings or dramatic neighborhood transformation. We’re talking about a basement suite, a garage conversion, maybe a small coach house – ways for families to help aging parents stay close, for young adults to afford their first home in Tecumseh, for empty nesters to create income while staying in their community. at least 2520sq ft has to remain landscaped. I appreciate having the requirement for green and open space.
It’s taken us 1.5yrs to come to a decision. In a time of a housing crisis. And what we’re contemplating is the least aggressive option to allow for new housing starts that bring in affordability and availability, which has received some prominent opposition. Not to mention a solution that has been subject to politicization, hyperbole, and misinformation.
A lot has been said about me personally throughout this process, lucky for all of us, I have thick skin & I can commit to the job I’m here to do.
We have an affordability crisis. It’s not coming, it’s here now. Tecumseh is out of reach for a lot of people. we may think of ourselves as a wealthy suburb, and think that affordability is something for others to consider in their communities. Our own data shows 1,000 households in our community are spending more than 30% of their income on housing. These aren’t statistics – these are our neighbors, our kids trying to start families, our seniors looking to downsize but stay in the community they’ve called home for decades. We have an opportunity to allow for a layer of affordability for people that already live here and people that want to live here. I’m not going to cast a vote to exclude people from living in Tecumseh or to prevent people from aging in place in Tecumseh.
No one has to build an ARU. The municipality can limit the impact to the surrounding existing neighbourhood, and then get out of the way for property owners to invest in their properties according to their needs, affordability, and desires.
None of these options allows for someone to come in buy a property, bulldoze the single-family home on it and build 4 separate ARUs. None of these options allows for someone to come in by a property, bulldoze the single-family home and build a fourplex. None of these options allows for four-Plex to be built at all. ARU construction has been moderate in the Town. Current set backs, height restrictions, maximum lot coverage etc still have to be adhered to.
Tecumseh currently has the highest access to primary care physicians in the region. I’m voting to open up the possibility that people who have made a home here have a place to downsize to and stay close to their primary care doctor.
Municipalities do not limit who is an owner and who is a renter. Municipalities enact mechanisms through bylaws to ensure a level of property standards. There has been a lot of talk about expectations of the kinds of people that would live in ARUs or rental units. Renters are allowed in Tecumseh. Renters are our fellow citizens who deserve to live in the place they chose to call home. We’ve made this an incredible community, it is no wonder people would like to live here. There is no “typical” Tecumseh resident.
It is the responsibility of the municipality to plan for the future. Growth is coming for Tecumseh. Growth is not a negative. Permitting ARUs is a gentle step in the direction of allowing for new housing options to welcome in new residents.
By the way, welcoming in new housing also increases the tax base. You cannot have stable services, low density and low taxes forever. One of them will have to give. Allowing for gentle density in areas with current servicing protects your tax dollars now and in the future. We WILL be building out in the new Hamlet and around Manning Road, that’s already in the plans. But it’s not free. And it’s not paid for entirely by the new people moving in.
It will cost all of us to decline this opportunity. It will not only cost us this particular $4.4million, but will also exclude us from future granting opportunities through the federal government. We have been an incredibly successful municipality in securing federal funds to offset costs of improving the Town’s infrastructure. I’m going to think ahead.
Finally, I have watched and listened and learned- over the past 1.5yrs here, and longer as a person interested in housing and municipal growth. There are pieces of a community that thrive when we invite people to belong. We can look to things like Taste of Tecumseh, like our new Farmer’s Market, and the baseball games at the improved LaCasse Park. People here are hungry for community connection and belonging. Current and future Tecumseh deserves those opportunities. We want the critical mass of people to allow for opportunities like this to grow. We want to see different types of people, different types of businesses.
I want seniors to have options to retire & downsize & still walk to St Anne’s Church for service & to the Seniors Active Living Centre & to your grandkid’s school for their concert. I want us to have a healthy & reliable transit system because we have more users. Those transit riders jump on the bus to take them from Lakewood Park to a new library in the Hamlet, go for a walk around Micallef Woods, bus back to Slinky’s for an ice cream. When you decide at 6pm on a beautiful evening that you don’t want to make dinner, you have 2 or 3 locally owned restaurants you can walk to, sit on the patio & support your community while you eat, then you saunter home, safely along an active transit trail. Maybe Tecumseh’s teenagers have an arcade to hang out in, maybe there’s language classes offered at the cafe uptown, and a new clothing shop that opens on Tecumseh Road.
There will always be critics and people raising concerns about change. It’s our job to listen to all of it, and to balance it against what’s best for the community now and in the future, and enhance the values of the community so that people long after me can enjoy it, afford it, feel welcomed and encouraged to open a business here, to live here, to support this Town we love.
We are in a housing crisis. It is not someone else’s obligation to address it, it is ours as well.
Some will say we should do nothing. But doing nothing means losing $3.2 million, breaking our federal agreement, and turning our backs on 1,000 households struggling with housing costs today. That’s not leadership.This is about building the Tecumseh our children and grandchildren can afford to live in, while preserving what we love about our community today. Option E does that.”