The city’s massive land exchange deal with the province is no longer at risk, after council voted unanimously tonight to reverse its decision from last Thursday to kill new development in Parsons Creek.
At a special council meeting today, councillors reopened the debate and re-voted on zoning for Phase 2 of the Parsons Creek development, north of Timberlea.
When that zoning was defeated, the province warned that it would make their land exchange deal signed in January null and void.
That would mean the city couldn’t take over road improvements on Highways 63 and 69 this summer, and it wouldn’t get more land released in the south of town later on.
Mayor Melissa Blake says that Infrastructure Minister Wayne Drysdale’s comments about council being reckless weren’t unfounded.
“It was probably the first time I’ve ever seen a reaction from the province in writing. It also probably is what compelled members of council to contact the individual. So was I surprised? Yes I was surprised. Was it inexplicable? No, not from the perspective that I had,” she said.
Councillor Phil Meagher spoke about how he felt the decision to vote down the motion earlier in the month was a gamble that weighed on residents.
Councillor Allan Vinni says rejecting it the first time was a risk, but a calculated one.
“I believe I said it during the debate, I said ‘they’ll be meeting about this tomorrow, they’ll be calling us tomorrow.’ It took them three days, but they met about this and they called us,” he said.
Blake says even though it ended well, she agreed with Meagher’s assessment on the decision to turn down the province.
“It’s a very high-risk situation to put yourself in – not knowing whether it would actually have that kind of an outcome. There’s two sides to every story, and my side is always about how do I make my community the best place it can be. And my side is it’s better when I know exactly what I’m getting, versus not knowing what the outcome would be,” she said.
Council voted 6-2 to amend the Parsons Creek zoning to reduce the number of multi-family units and increase single-family; Mayor Melissa Blake and Councillor Tyran Ault opposed those changes.
But council voted unanimously 8-0 to approve the amended plan; councillor Lance Bussieres declared a pecuniary interest and left, while councillor Julia Cardinal was ineligible to vote because she wasn’t at the original meeting.
On Thursday, council had voted 4-3 to defeat the Parsons Creek zoning plans.
All four councillors who voted no on Thursday – Sheldon Germain, Guy Boutilier, Jane Stroud, and Allan Vinni – changed their votes tonight.
Germain, Boutilier, and Vinni argued that by defeating the motion on Thursday, council sent a message to the province that will result in greater attention being paid to the municipality’s challenges in future.
Stroud remarked that she was better aware that defeating the zoning meant that more than 200 acres of new land in Saline Creek was at risk.
Vinni reiterated that he believes the province needs to do a better, more timely job of releasing land to the municipality, to avoid overpricing while also protecting existing investors against land values declining.
