The Blue Mountains council has approved a plan to purchase a Ravenna property for $1.5 million.
At its meeting on July 10, council approved a report from CAO Shawn Everitt that recommended purchasing a 3.48 acre property in Ravenna that is located immediately adjacent to the town’s operations centre in Ravenna on Grey Road 2.
“We feel strategically it has great value to the town,” Everitt said at the meeting.
The purchase price will be funded through development charges earmarked for the expansion of the Ravenna operations centre.
The town’s works department building in Ravenna has long needed an expansion/upgrade and has been a long-standing capital project for the municipality. However, the property’s tight confines, unique elevation and contours and its proximity to the adjacent park, Cenotaph and Ravenna Hall have made moving forward with the project difficult.
Everitt said the purchase of the Grey Road 2 property would solve all of the expansion issues.
“This is a great opportunity. It’s the one piece of property that would give us the ability to expand that site,” he said.
The CAO said moving forward on an upgrade/expansion of the operations centre on the property, without the purchase of the property in question, would have likely necessitated a temporary relocation of the operations centre that would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Everitt noted that the cost estimate he quoted was based on the assumption the town could actually find a temporary location for its operations centre.
“This is great news,” said Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon, after Everitt’s presentation.
The CAO’s report also noted that the new property would give the town the opportunity to expand access to parking in Ravenna. Everitt noted that area of the town is extremely popular with cyclists, but parking facilities are limited.
“Staff suggest that this location would be identified as a paid parking lot and could include amenities to support cyclist needs, and could also be a good location for an electric vehicle charging station,” Everitt said in his report.
Council unanimously approved the report and authorized the mayor and clerk to execute all the required documents needed for the purchase and transfer of the land.
