Guelphissauga #4: Marcolongo Farmland

The Fellowship of Guelphissauga continues with a side quest to the Marcolongo farms near Gordon & Malty. This time around the Fellowship faces off with Options for Homes, a sly Toronto-based Property Development company over a proposed 24-acre park and residential zoning of the 35 acres of the old Marcolongo farmland. Twelve delegates are registered to speak at Council's meeting.
Options For Homes has an agreement in place with the Marcolongo family to purchase the farmland where they plan build 700 to 800 residential units, likely being condominiums. Meanwhile, the City of Guelph is proposing to build a 24-acre park in the Clair-Maltby area that could reduce the number of residential units. Marcolongo is working on an alternate plan that would move the park to another location on the same property where less residential units are impacted.

The battle between affordable housing and open park space is only the surface of the issues at hand. Under the surface, the true intentions of Options for Homes are revealed. In an interview with GuelphToday, Daniel Ger, Chief Development Officer for Options For Homes, describes the company as a “mission-driven social enterprise” making home ownership more “affordable”. This seems like great news on the surface as Guelph is suffering from ever-inflating housing costs. But dig a bit deeper and the true identity of Options for Homes is revealed, as Daniel Ger later admits to in the interview.

Options for Homes claims they offer affordable housing and social living through interest-free loans to cover the down payment on traditional mortgages. But in reality, they are doing little to offset expensive housing costs. Options for Homes's own CDO admits this by the end of the interview;“It’s not social housing. It’s not highly subsidized housing. It’s a different type of product to help them get into ownership.” On their own website, Options for Homes says how they plan to profit off the “affordability” element of their contracts. Instead of charging interest on loans, like a regular bank does, they plan to extract the equivalent percent of the house's value when the buyer sells it later on. They will pocket any future proportional equity gain on the house sale. With house prices in Guelph steadily increasing, Options for Homes will gain a big cash return in later years.

What do you think?
Should City Council approve a park or condominiums on the Marcolongo farmland?
Is Options For Homes actually a profit-based Property Developer hiding under Social Housing clothing?
Are Leanne Caron Piper and Cathy Downer
Will Mayor Guthrie allow the 12 delegates to speak at the meeting?
too distracted by Nimby Dogs to notice Options for Homes true intentions?