An artist rendering of a proposed six-storey apartment building on Murphy Road in Sarnia. (Image courtesy of the City of Sarnia.)An artist rendering of a proposed six-storey apartment building on Murphy Road in Sarnia. (Image courtesy of the City of Sarnia.)
Sarnia

Planning moves forward on Murphy Rd. apartment building

Plans to build a net-zero apartment building in Sarnia are moving forward following a setback last year.

The six-storey apartment building is expected to be built on Murphy Road, near Michigan Avenue.

The project is about two years in the making. Although there is a "tremendous need" for housing, the project hasn't always been well received.

An appeal was issued by a neighbour who was not pleased with the height of the building.

Project Manager Brian Mundt said over the past couple of months, an Ontario Land Tribunal hearing was held and they were successful in allowing the project to proceed.

He also said they were successful with a preliminary feasibility study to attempt to build a net-zero building.

"Being successful in that application [with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities], we can now proceed in doing the feasibility work so that has begun and is progressing quite well," he said.

"The significance of net-zero is that you have, ideally, zero carbon emissions utilized by the building. So all of the energy generated on site is used for that property."

Mundt said the objective for all new construction builds is to have some form of net-zero by 2030, but there is a push in the industry to get technologies in place before that time.

The project's initial goal was to start construction in the spring of 2023 but Mundt said no timelines have been specified at this time, as they continue with the planning process and funding applications.

Although there is a need for housing, Mundt said the rate of new builds is just not keeping up with demand.

"We have a lot of people who are already interested in applying for a waitlist," Mundt said. "Unfortunately, we're quite a bit down the road from that. Sometimes it's a little heartbreaking when you know that there's that much need in the inability to fulfill it."

Mundt had previously said affordable rents will be provided to about half of the units built and the target crowd will be women over the age of 60.

-With files from Melanie Irwin

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