consultation. The plan aims to enable a mix of quality student accommodations that integrates with the existing community, using zoning to promote student housing development along a designated corridor of largely vacant, undeveloped lands surrounding the UOIT and Durham College campuses in north Oshawa. Follow-up reports identify the Community Improvement Plan and Development Charge By-law exemptions as “instrumental in kick-starting development which may not otherwise have occurred.”

Because the lands in the near-campus neighbourhoods in this region of Oshawa are not yet developed, zoning controls can be an effective tool to encourage appropriate development. However, areas surrounding the University of Windsor are already within the boundaries of Windsor’s Economic Revitalization Community Improvement Plan, which provides successful applicants with a grant to offset 100% of the development charges paid for a project. A similar study could be produced at Council’s direction, but the areas around Windsor’s post-secondary institutions are already developed and compliance with zoning would only be required of new developments.

City of Waterloo – Northdale Neighbourhood

Waterloo has two post-secondary institutions, the University of Waterloo and Wilfred Laurier University, located within its well-established Northdale neighbourhood. In 2012, the City of Waterloo approved the Northdale Land Use and Community Improvement Plan Study to address issues related to the changing resident demographics and development pressures associated with increased demand for student housing. Although the study does not mention student housing specifically, one of its guiding principles was that Northdale be “a complete community that accommodates a diverse demographic and range of land use,” indicating that having a neighbourhood predominantly of any one use (including student accommodations) is to be avoided.

The urban design guidelines resulting from the Northdale Plan Study do not attempt to maintain existing residential neighbourhoods in near-campus neighbourhoods as they currently are. Instead, it lays out guidelines for built environments that are distinctly urban in order to increase the density of available housing in Northdale for all residents, including students, by increasing the intensity of allowable development. To adapt to the pressures of increased housing demands in Northdale, including those of students, the Northdale Plan Study Urban Design and Built Form Guidelines state clearly that “the low-density, single detached house will no longer be the predominant housing form in the Northdale neighbourhood.” Instead, new development should be focused on mixed-use, mixed-density development that supports diverse transit and pedestrian activities.

The Northdale Land Use and Community Improvement Plan Study and its related land-use plan, community improvement plan and urban design guidelines were approved by Waterloo City Council in 2012. In response, multiple appeals were filed with the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), largely by those impacted by the changes in zoning the Plan recommends. The OMB has put into effect the recommended Official Plan policies, zoning by-law changes and community improvement plan with some property-specific exceptions. Two new zones were created – “Northdale Mixed Use” and “Northdale Commercial.” These zones establish the maximum permissible residential density through a measure of bedrooms per hectare rather than by establishing a limit to the