City Council defeats motion to declare land surplus

During Monday night's regular meeting of council, a motion was put forward to request that the city consider rezoning municipally owned lands in the block bound by Marshall Avenue, Parks Creek, Tweedsmuir Drive and the Canadian Pacific Railway and to declare the non-developed lands as surplus.

Councillor Chris Mayne says that the intent of the motion was to have the subject lands assessed, appraised, surveyed and offered for sale to prospective residential developers in order to facilitate the construction of entry level dwelling units.

While not to be confused with affordable housing or perhaps geared to income housing, the location was hoped to be a site for housing priced to ownership at a level seen as affordable by some councillors.

“One of the pressing needs of the community is entry level housing in the community,” says Mayne.

According to Mayne, while the demand for higher end real estate in the city has cooled off in the last 6-9 months, the prospects of finding smaller homes for less than $200,000 is getting more difficult.

The land in question is currently zoned 'institutional' which is intended for churches and schools. Mayne believes that both are declining in need in the community and says that even if they went ahead, they wouldn't pay any base tax.

Mayne says that by rezoning the property to R5, developers would be able to build 18-22 entry level homes that would bring in a yearly tax base of $80-100,000.

“It would make a small difference in the community,” he says.

Despite attempts from three council members to keep it on committee for review, the motion failed to pass.

It was said at the meeting that no local developers were interested in the location perhaps due the high cost of preparing the expensive land (swamp or bald rock, take your pick), as well as the fact that city services would range in the $60-70,000 cost, not to mention the price of the land on top of everything would undoubtedly make low cost housing somewhat difficult, if not impossible.

Concerns were also raised by councillors that they feel they should not be in the business of land development at this time nor dictate to developers what type of housing they should build.

“We should not be in that game, quite frankly,” says Deputy Mayor Peter Chirico.

While always a contentious issue, the example of the rail lands on Third Avenue was raised as a successful implementation of this type of plan. However, the fact that the services in the downtown area are there right at the lots made the economics of that instance work.

“We are certainly not against (building affordable housing) but let's compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges,” says Chirico.

While disappointing that nothing more can be done with the land for the next year, it is noble and honest the way that councillors are seeking to solve the housing issue in the municipality.

“The motion was defeated but towards another day, I'm sure that there will be more opportunities in the community,” says Mayne.

“It's a continual process."