Boutin Avenue Development

The Town of Hinton is working on an affordable housing development on Town-owned land at the intersection of Boutin Avenue and Drinnan Way. The project will see a number of modular affordable homes developed and operated by Town of Hinton in partnership with a housing management body.

The Town of Hinton has been exploring development opportunities for the undeveloped, Town-owned lands at the intersection of Boutin Ave and Drinnan Way since 2018.

In July 2020, a design team from V3 and ncx+ conducted the Boutin Avenue design charrette at Government Centre. The Boutin Avenue design charrette was an intensive collaborative engagement process that saw the project go from a vision stage to a final preferred concept design over a four-day period.
This dynamic process brought different stakeholder groups to the table to discuss their needs and vision for the site. The design team took this information and created a series of site plans that captured the different visions. 
After the four days, the intent was to have a preferred concept design that has the support from those who participated. The process involved stakeholders and the public participating in three sessions during the four days to achieve validation of the preferred design. 

During the design charrette, the objectives of the project were identified as:
Best utilization of Town-owned land
Diversification of Hinton’s housing inventory
Development that is conscious of and complementary to existing development
Housing that is both financially attainable and sustainable
The preferred design was identified as:

In November 2020, Council directed Administration to pursue a Collaborative Partnership approach in the development of the Boutin Avenue lands with other organizations and developers and collaboratively seek other sources of grant funding to provide affordable housing through a phased approach. 

In December 2020, the Town of Hinton applied to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) for the Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) grant with assistance from Colliers who have expertise in the field of Housing Project Management associated with CMHC. 
The Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI) provides funding to expedite the delivery of affordable housing units  to people and populations targeted under the National Housing Strategy (NHS). 

In December 2021, CMHC awarded the Town of Hinton $2,258,000 from the RHI grant for the construction of 8 (eight) affordable housing units. 
 
This project is still in the planning phases and more updates will be provided as they become available.