Could “micro unit” developments solve the housing crisis in St. John’s?

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Conversations around the water cooler at city hall have changed an awful lot since Coun. Maggie Burton first joined St. John’s council in 2017. 

As the council lead for planning, Burton has noticed a slow-but-steady shift in attitudes towards residential developments, with council, developers and residents embracing the need for additional housing units in the city as the practicality and demand for spacious and costly single-family homes shrinks in kind. 

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With upwards of 2,000 housing units submitted for council approval in the last few months, Burton can’t help but wonder if we’re witnessing the real-time birth of a new era of housing and development in the capital city. 

“In my first few years on council, you would get a few multi-unit residential builds that came before us,” Burton told The Telegram. 

“Today, I got staff to send me a note that… over the few months prior to January, there was something like 1,900 units that came to council. I feel great about it. I feel like the tide has really turned. We’re thinking (more) about multi-unit builds as opposed to just single-family homes. I’ve definitely seen the shift away from the R1 single-family home mentality towards multi-unit residential.” 

“An exciting proposal” 

This was evident at this week’s city council meeting as councillors approved a pair of significant higher-density housing developments in the name of battling the ongoing housing crisis.  

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The former Mission Church of St. Michael and All Angels at 146 Casey St. is being considered for rezoning to allow for the construction of 13 micro-unit dwellings, including much-needed wheelchair accessible units on the building’s first floor.  

Burton called the project “an exciting proposal,” saying during the meeting that it ticks many of the boxes needed to approve a higher-density development and showcases the developer’s willingness to meet the actual needs of the city’s housing market. 

“Finally, a developer has come forward with some wheelchair-accessible units,” she said. 

“There’s a lot of potential for including persons with disabilities in your business plan for your development. I think this is really important. Also, what is exciting about it is the micro-unit use, which I think prevents an overbuilding of car parking resources. When you don’t require parking for all of the units you have, that puts less strain on the developer themselves, which can reduce the cost per unit on the renter that comes in.” 

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“There’s a huge demand for one-bedroom units” 

Burton feels the city’s biggest housing need is smaller, one-bedroom units and believes the influx of developers promoting micro units could go a long way in meeting the housing needs of city residents amidst a housing shortage. It has the potential to better reflect the municipality’s modern demographics, she said. 

“Even in our city housing, there’s a huge demand for one-bedroom units,” Burton said.

“People don’t need as much space to live in as they used to. People are having less children. People are choosing not to have any children. The single-family home that came out of the Second World War baby boom no longer works for the majority of people, I would say.”  

What is a micro unit?

While there’s no hard definition on what constitutes a micro unit, Burton suggests they are similar to traditional studio apartments and typically boast a footprint of 450 square feet or less, if not smaller.

“If you look at something like a tiny home, it’s often under a thousand square feet,” Burton added. “A micro unit is the apartment equivalent of a tiny home. That’s how I consider it.”

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While this might sound incredibly petite to those who have enjoyed their old-fashioned white picket fences and Leave it to Beaver-style family homes, Burton suggests micro units are suitable for a larger cross-section of the population than one might think. 

“It could be a young couple that’s looking for an efficient way to use the space that they have,” Burton said. 

“… Or it could be a lot of single individuals, uncoupled individuals, students and a lot of seniors. Seniors want to downsize. They don’t want to live in a large house anymore, and I think that apartment living is really the future for a lot of seniors within the city.” 

What are the benefits of micro units?

Micro units, she said, provide no shortage of benefits to residents and developers alike, as developers can create a more efficient use of their land with more units per building while maintaining manageable rental rates and lowering overall environmental impacts.

The development of micro units also decreases residents’ reliance on motor vehicles, as micro unit developments tend to land in areas that are already dense in infrastructure, services and amenities.  

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Burton believes the overwhelming benefits of micro housing developments have incredible potential in shaping how the city views urban density moving forward. 

“On Casey Street, you do not need to own a car,” Burton said.

“You can choose to own one if you want, but you don’t need one because you’re within the densest part of the city… I think that including micro units in our development is kind of revolutionizing the way that we approach development, especially within already built areas of the city.”

Trying times require creative solutions

Burton admits there’s a perception among the city’s development community that the municipality isn’t exactly the quickest when it comes to rezoning and applications and putting the pieces in place to allow for expeditious developments and a speedy creation of new housing units.

But she feels city staff deserves some credit for a creative text amendment that paved the way for the quick addition of 99 residential units to the city’s housing inventory by converting the Extended Stay Hotel at 222 LeMarchant Rd. into a permanent residence without the requisite red tape.

“We’re looking at a text amendment that doesn’t require (a) public hearing, or public meeting and months and months of delay,” Burton explains.

“This type of creative solution is something I think our staff has gotten really good at, especially working within the confines of antiquated provincial legislation. I think that we are really good at trying to find those areas for applying a more creative lens… Our municipal planners at the city and our development team and our engineers, they are all working together to try to solve the housing crisis as best they can.”

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