Niagara Falls city staff will report back to council on options to re-purpose lands owned by the municipality along the hydro corridor from Kalar Road through to Charnwood Avenue for a potential affordable-housing project.

Council gave direction to staff during a recent in-camera session, which was ratified during the open portion of the meeting later that evening.

Politicians also appointed Coun. Victor Pietrangelo as chair of an affordable-housing committee, which will act as a committee of all of council, to work through some ideas around bringing more opportunities to the city.

“We have a real opportunity with the property that I brought forward,” said Pietrangelo. “At some point, I would really like to be able to speak publicly about this.

“I just want to be able to have the ability to try to bring it to fruition. I believe it’s a real great opportunity to make an impact in our affordable housing.”

Clerk Bill Matson said a staff report will “reflect the discussion” that was had behind closed doors, which was permitted under the Municipal Act as it dealt with land matters.

Pietrangelo said affordable housing has “a lot of different facets to it,” including subsidized housing and “the ability to be able to afford your own home.”

“With the opportunity that’s in front of us, the one that I brought forward, I think we have the ability to make a real impact in both of those areas,” he said.

“Any decisions that are going to be made are going to be made by the council as a whole. But any ideas to get to those decisions, I was hoping to be part of, whether it’s setting up meetings and discussions with other levels of government, different non-profit agencies, even private people who might be interested. The goal is to make a very significant dent in the affordable-housing crisis that pretty much is in every municipality.”

In an interview, Pietrangelo said he’s going to “err on the side of caution” and not yet publicly disclose his idea, but that “everything will come out eventually.”

This isn’t the first idea Pietrangelo has had regarding affordable housing.

It was his idea that recently led to the city partnering with Niagara Region, which is responsible for housing issues, on a project at the former library building on Victoria Avenue at Armoury Street.

“I’m trying to build on that success,” he said. “I’m pretty grateful that council has deemed me to chair an affordable-housing committee. My understanding is, you have this idea, go work with staff, bring it back to council and council can make the decisions on what they move forward on.”

Ray Spiteri is a St. Catharines-based reporter for the Niagara Falls Review. Reach him via email: raymond.spiteri@niagaradailies.com