Lake for sale

Want to buy a body of water?
Then has the city of North Bay got a deal for you.

Council approved the sale Monday night of 22 surplus properties, among them a 324-hectacre parcel which includes Otter Lake.

The matter was one of three items discussed behind closed doors before being passed in open session.

Money in our bank account
Selling surplus land had been one of Mayor Vic Fedeli’s campaign promises, and is included in his 2020 Vision plan.

“And as a group we’re unanimously behind it to make sure it happens,” said Coun. Darryl Vaillancourt, assigned spokesman for the initiative by Fedeli.

City staff, Vaillancourt said, has worked “very, very hard” to bring all the lots “to the forefront, so we can sell them and hopefully put a little bit of money in our bank account.”

Biggest bang
The properties, Vaillancourt said, are located “all over” North Bay, “from the top of Airport Hill down to West Ferris.”

But the property Vaillancourt believes will deliver the “biggest bang for the buck” is the Otter Lake site.

It’s located off Widdifield Station Road, and includes the water lot, Vaillancourt said.

“Mayor Fedeli believes the Otter Lake property is expected to go for at least $1 million,” Vaillancourt said.

Former nudist colony
North Bay chief administrative officer Dave Linkie called the Otter Lake property “unique.”

“You have the ability to basically control a whole lake, because you’ll effectively own all of the land around it,” Linkie said, adding the property is large enough to build a subdivision on.

At one point during the '60s and '70s Otter Lake was home to the Norhaven nudist resort.

The list of properties will be made public by the end of the week once residents who live next to them are notified.

“We don’t want them to find out about this by seeing a ‘For Sale’ suddenly put up on the lots,” Linkie said.

The properties other than Otter Lake could fetch a total of $600,000, Linkie estimated.