Council approved a Land Disposal strategy at last night’s meeting, which could see a number of properties along the Snye sold to private developers.
The property up for sale is excess land, that the city doesn’t need to develop to meet the plans of the downtown redevelopment.
The redevelopment’s executive director Ron Taylor says just because the option is open, doesn’t mean this land is going anywhere.
“That doesn’t mean that we will sell any or all of the land, nor does it mean that those lands will be developed on.”
Mayor Melissa Blake says the idea is to still be open to development, outside of the city centre’s redevelopment plans.
“Part of the difficulty that we anticipate having is getting enough property for people in the private side to be able to come and develop the kind of things we’d like to see; increase the density, increase the office space, increase the retail space.”
She says that council will still have final say over what projects go in.
“Council will have the opportunity to review any of the proposals that come forward,” she continues, “but ultimately it’s other means of us being able to facilitate some of that private side development in areas that we think would be beneficial.”
The properties start at Borealis Park and go east along the Snye, but the city says the park won’t be lost, only built around.
The land right along the water, north of Morimoto Drive won’t be auctioned; it’s categorized as a recreation zone.
-Written by Evan Cooke
July 10th, 2013
