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Lodging home increase feared - Invest Windsor Ontario Real Estate

February 26, 2010

The recent influx of hundreds of mature students into the downtown, with plans for more to come, is being blamed in part for new development pressure that some argue threatens the area's heritage streets.

Windsor's planning department said it's seeing more applications to convert single-family dwellings into lodging homes to accommodate transient tenants, and the latest request goes before council Monday night.

The owner of 677 Victoria Ave., located within the Victoria Avenue Heritage Area, is seeking rezoning to permit conversion into a six-room, four-bathroom rooming house with shared kitchen facility. Applicant Hendrikus Van Aspert told council this week that students are a possible target market.

But opponents point to neighbourhoods with transient homes and the possible negative consequences, and they argue the only way to safeguard the future of the grand old homes of Windsor is by preserving them as occupant-owned, single-family dwellings.

"The concern of the neighbours is that a great historical neighbourhood is being transformed into a transient neighbourhood," said Coun. Alan Halberstadt, whose Ward 3 includes that area.

"If we lose viable homes, it doesn't matter if we build a beautiful canal or a concert hall ... the city will be dead at 6 p.m.," said Jonathan Gillespie, longtime owner of Treble Large, an imposing heritage-designated house built in 1895 and located four doors south.

He and other neighbours spoke out at this week's city council meeting on their perception of the deleterious impact of the Downtown Mission and other lodging homes that have set up in their area in recent years.

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