Allandale land for sale in the fall
Simcoe Article: Allandale land for sale in the fall.
Janis Ramsay, jramsay@simcoe.com
BARRIE – The Allandale station lands will be up for sale this fall.
The value of the land has previously been estimated at $3 million, and any developer that buys it will have to pay a further $1.8 million for improvements to the land.
General manager of infrastructure, development and culture Richard Forward said whoever buys the land should pay an extra $1.8 million for the tunnel underpass from Gowan onto the property and for the Gowan Street roadwork and sewer repairs.
“It’s not uncommon for the city to request the developer to pay for services,” Forward said. “We are not asking the developer to pay for the Gowan Street road works, we are asking the developer to pay for internal road works to the site that benefit development on the site.”
He said Park Place developer North American Development Group is paying for “the internal servicing improvements, (and) they are also paying for external road works to the site.”
Ward 10 Coun. Alex Nuttall, however, didn’t think it was fair to ask a developer to pay $1.8 million extra for roadwork and the GO Train underpass by Gowan Street.
“To charge a developer for the underpass, used by the provincial government’s GO Transit users, seems wrong to me,” said Nuttall. “And to charge a developer for roads that are being used by the city, the development, GO and eventually Re/Max seems wrong to me. Everyone should pair a fair share and not a penny more or less.”
Forward said the underpass is costing the city $3 million to build, and the developer is only being asked to pay $850,000 towards it. Forward also thought a $950,000 bill for Gowan Street road repairs was appropriate to hand to a developer.
Nevertheless, Nuttall said it was unfortunate council couldn’t agree to make a counter offer to The Correct Group of Companies, a developer that has spent three years working on a proposal for the land.
“We’ve invested three years on debate and to say we need more time is incorrect,” Nuttall said. “Time is passing by, along with tax money we could’ve earned.”
As Nuttall tried to nix the $950,000 roadwork bill and drop the underpass payment to $425,000, he said: “I’m very tired of having project after project here, then (we’re) throwing someone to the curb and three years later we still have nothing.”
“We don’t have a good record with purchase of sales,” he said.
Council disagreed with Nuttall, though, and wanted to see any future developer cough up more cash for the site.
“Developers are big boys and understand what they’re getting into,” said Ward 7 Coun. John Brassard. “We’re asking them to pay for something they normally pay for.”
And while Ward 2 Coun. Lynn Strachan and Ward 6 Coun. Michael Prowse wanted to see the property up for sale, they agreed there should be opportunities for something different.
Council had considered splitting the land into four parcels and selling them individually, but agreed to sell the land to only one developer.
“We’ve diluted this worse and worse and have gone from something dynamic and new to something that’s not particularly exciting,” said Prowse.
Mayor Jeff Lehman told council it was time to get moving on something, and council passed the motion to put the land up for sale.
