In late July, Winnipeg city council voted 15-1 to approve a downtown housing strategy that aims to not only re-energize and reconstitute the city’s core, but gradually wean developers off of government incentives and grants to ensure long-term potency to expansion and redevelopment.

The Downtown Residential Development Strategy was penned by city administrator Stan Dueck and encapsulates a broader initiative that has been decades in the making.

“We’ve been at it for over 30 years,” said Dr. Jino Distasio, director of the Institute of Urban Studies.

“Downtown has always been a point of concern, dating back to the Core Area Initiative of 1980.”

Now, City Hall is prepared to act on the recommendations in the report, which include reforms to parking and safety, along with a massive increase in housing projects.

“A great deal of the report states what we are already doing,” said Deputy Mayor Justin Swandel. “I can tell you that things are moving in a positive direction and we expect to see that continue.”

Among the most pivotal aspects of the report is a comprehensive assessment of population trends in downtown Winnipeg.

According to recent statistics, the combined residents within the Broadway-Assiniboine and Central Park neighbourhoods account for more than 65 per cent of the core’s total population. This disproportion suggests housing development must be proliferated to other areas, in particular the Exchange District, which is home to a burgeoning and thriving commercial sector.

The city “takes a global approach to development as a rule,” Swandel said, and engages with neighbourhoods “based on their character as applications come forward.”

As for spurring housing expansion, the report also introduces the Downtown Residential Development Grant Program, an initiative aiming to provide developers with grants and tax incentives to encourage more mixed-income and mixed-use projects.

While the report states that this grant program could alone generate more than 1,400 new units, not everyone is convinced.

“It only makes sense that if development can occur without taxpayer incentives, then the incentives should end,” said Swandel.

Solutions to parking and efficiency are other areas of focus in the city’s downtown strategy.

“The City of Winnipeg is committed ... to (introducing) practical creative parking solutions that ... promote mobility (and) contribute to a high quality urban environment,” the report states.

While the intricacies of these purported plans are vague as of yet, they remain a pertinent topic of discussion moving forward. As the report overtly states, a parking strategy is a major component of the broader image of the future of downtown Winnipeg.

Opposition to the strategy has been light. Of the 16 councillors who voted, only Coun. Russ Wyatt turned it down, saying it does not go far enough.

Whatever the case, Distasio said, “there is not a limitless amount of dollars to address issues in Winnipeg.”

What is needed is the “right mix of policy, change and support,” he said.

Published in Volume 66, Number 3 of The Uniter (September 15, 2011)