The Greater Toronto Area is experiencing a severe shortage of housing stock for Millennials aged 25 to 29 to move out of family homes and start their own households.
According to a study by Ryerson University’s Centre For Urban Development & Land Research released this week, demand from that demographic over the next decade calls for an additional 70,000 single and semi-detached homes or townhouses. That’s a tall order and there’s still no guarantee of affordability because such a core area will attract interest and because land is at a premium in that area.
Those numbers should be seen as an opportunity for a town like Napanee. It is well situated on Hwy 401 and central to the Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal markets. Land here should be more accessible and affordable and though people who have lived here for generations like their rural lifestyle, there’s some room yet for growth that can bring necessities like shopping, recreation, and health care closer, while serving to reduce the overall tax burden. Property values might also rise if Napanee becomes a more desired locale, attracting not just retirees but young people prepared to invest their energy and start families to settle in for a generation.
Policy makers with the town and county must make attraction a priority in the years ahead — and that’s not an easy task in rural Ontario right now. Until someone gets a handle on energy prices and fuel costs, it’s hard to imagine that another company like Goodyear is going to locate in the region and bring considerable gainful employment. That said, if Lennox and Addington County keeps ahead of servicing and broadband requirements and offers the best deal it can to provide incentives for industrial development, it should be competitive with other municipalities who aren’t on a major highway and who don’t have an easy commute to education centres in Kingston and in Belleville.
It’s also a good time for this county and its municipalities to step up marketing efforts to attract people who can move or create their own employment opportunities. There’s much to offer with beautiful waterfront, scenic routes, and local cuisine that can provide an attractive lifestyle for singles and for families. If this community is able to leverage that with the type of amenities bigger cities are known for, one can expect there will be some real interest ahead.
Over the past 15 years, Napanee has made great strides toward that end goal. The town’s risk to build the Strathcona Paper Centre in 2014 gave it recreation facilities that rival those in bigger cities, yet are still affordable to use. Merchants like Jefta and Cat Monster, of Starlet, believed the town could support boutique-style shopping and they — along with a hard-working, visionary group of downtown retailers —brought revival and made little Napanee a destination for urbanites. The town’s Christmas displays are another innovation that brings people from larger areas. One can only imagine if the community supports the Gibbard District the mix of vitality, interest, and investment that will follow.
There’s always a fear of losing the small-town charm that this place what it is and it’s well founded. It’s a delicate balancing act to be certain. For now, though, there’s no harm in continuing to think big and to believe Napanee is an attractive place that’s ready to grow. Nurturing that notion can and will bring a lot of good for years to come.