Increasing multi-residential development was on the table at the Greater Sudbury city council meeting Tuesday and a new program aimed to increase the number of places to live was approved.
The city's housing supply and demand analysis identified that at least 500 new rental units are needed to meet population growth and demand.
Through the new program, private developers receive a tax break for five or 10 years depending on the number of proposed new units being built.
Sudbury Mayor Paul Lefebvre said the idea is to address a lack of rental options in the city.
"The fact that we need to incentivize, right now, there's not much out there. There's very little," Lefebvre said.
"From a city's point of view, from, incentivizing poses great affordable apartments to create more opportunities. So, that’s why it was important for us to take the next step and also a lot of other municipalities have these incentives. So, we're just, it's playing ball with everybody else."
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The motion was unanimously approved by council.
This comes just a week after Panoramic Properties announced plans for a major redevelopment of the former St. Joseph's Hospital on Paris Street.
When asked, Lefebvre told CTV news the new program was not put in place to benefit Panoramic Properties.
A couple from Greater Sudbury has recently transformed a former elementary school into rental units for seniors looking to downsize.
Earlier this summer, a report on Greater Sudbury's projected population growth shows an expected large increase over the next two decades.
