For sale signs may soon be going up on several properties owned by the Town of The Blue Mountains.
At a special committee of the whole meeting on June 17, council voted in favour of moving forward with the possibility of selling up to ten properties to the public that staff have deemed surplus to the town’s needs.
CAO Shawn Everitt delivered a report outlining the next steps for possible sale of 11 town properties. At the recommendation of staff, one small property located on Grey County Road 2 was removed from the list after the town could not determine the legal ownership of the property.
Council supported 10 other properties moving on to the next stage for potential sales.
Several properties were unused town road allowances that would have to be stopped up and closed and then declared surplus.
Half of the properties have the potential to be rezoned by the town and sold as fully serviced building lots. The other half are tiny pieces of land that would be sold only to adjacent landowners as lot additions.
The full list of properties can be found online here.
Council voted on each of the 11 recommendations separately. Several were passed unanimously with little comment, while others were closer 5-2 or 4-3 votes.
For properties that are potential building lots, staff will explore rezoning requirements needed to sell a fully serviced building lot should council choose to go in that direction.
Everitt stressed that the report was the next phase of declaring the lands surplus and did not mean they would all be sold.
“This meeting does not sell the land,” said Everitt. “It is at the discretion of council to take a look at different options. If you don’t want to sell them, you don’t have to.”
The land sale plan originated during the 2023 budget process when council directed staff to look at possible land sales to raise $400,000 in revenue for the budget. Everitt said staff had recommended potential land sales that would deliver the highest value return to the town.
Multiple members of council expressed misgivings about the idea.
“I’m not a big proponent of selling these unopened road allowances,” said Coun. Gail Ardiel, who voted against several of the recommendations.
Coun. June Porter said the original concept was to sell land to help the 2023 budget, but noted the budget had finished with a healthy surplus.
“I don’t think the land needs to be sold at this time,” said Porter, when discussing the possible sale of the Cedar Street road allowance in Thornbury. “We don’t need the money.”
One property located on Gordon Street West near the Village at Blue contains a small trail used by the public. Staff recommended and council approved that the trail portion of the property be severed and retained by the town, with the rest of the land sold as a potential building lot.
Deputy Mayor Peter Bordignon said he was confident staff had done an in-depth review of the matter and had made solid recommendations.
“I know staff have gone through it very carefully based on what is in the best interest of the town,” he said.
