City of Powell River council has authorized the borrowing of $800,000 for the purchase of a 132-parcel of land adjacent to Millennium Park in Lot 450.
At its Thursday, May 18 meeting, council officially decided to borrow the purchase funds over a five-year period from the BC Municipal Finance Authority.
Council originally announced its intention to purchase the land adjacent to Brooks Secondary School at a special finance committee meeting on Tuesday, April 25.
Councillor Russell Brewer said at the May 18 meeting that the purchase of the treed land in centre of the municipality was strategic.
“If the city and community owns the property then we have more control over it,” said Brewer, “more so than if some other entity does.”
The city’s January 6 offer to PRSC Limited Partnership, a joint venture between Tla’amin Nation’s Tees’kwat Land Holdings and the city’s Powell River Waterfront Development Corporation, had previously been discussed in closed meetings.
The land purchase deal is subject to secured financing and is included in the city’s 2017 financial plan. Closing for the purchase is June 30.
Discussions of land deals such as this one happen in closed meetings because if the discussion were held in the public it would put local governments at a disadvantage, said Brewer.
Though the purchase price is $800,000, half of that would come back to the city as a dividend from the waterfront development corporation, said Brewer.
“So, in effect, we’re paying $400,000 for it,” he said.
Councillors were not definitive about plans for the Lot 450 parcel, other than to say the purchase would give the city greater say in the future use of the land.
Powell River resident Rob Krausz, who earlier this month raised concerns about council’s support for rezoning rural-designated land near Oceanview Education Centre for development, asked councillors if they had considered breaking up the larger parcel into smaller, more affordable agricultural lots to encourage urban farming.
Brewer said that council were looking at a range of uses for the land and Krausz’s suggestion was one of them.
Brewer said his focus right now was completing the purchase, though potential uses for the land include subdividing and sell portions for farming or other uses, adding to Millennium Park and retaining some of the currently unauthorized trails that snake through the parcel.
“At least owning it gives us these options,” said Brewer.
The city made its January offer after international school Sino Bright’s offer expired. Sino Bright let the deal expire after it was unable to secure a portion of the parcel’s exclusion from the provincial agricultural land reserve.
Powell River mayor Dave Formosa said that council was looking to have an agrologist perform a soil study on the city’s Black Point airport reserve land.
He added that they would consider approaching the BC Agricultural Land Commission with an offer of a swap for better quality land, a move that could potentially increase the amount of agricultural land in Powell River while freeing up some of the 132-acre parcel in Lot 450 for non-agricultural use.
Powell River resident George Orchiston told council that he supports the city’s purchase of the land, but is concerned that the issue of who owns the standing timber on the 132-acre parcel is still unclear.
"Everyone has just gone along with this idea that Island Timberlands owns the timber," said Orchiston. "Clearly, there is some common doubt by senior staff and by members of the public whether Island Timberlands does or ever did own the timber on that land.”
Formosa said that time was of the essence to complete the deal and the issue of the tree ownership is something still being discussed in council’s closed-door meetings.
"We would like nothing more to own those trees, believe me," said Formosa. "We do have a legal opinion and we're still not finished dealing with that."
Formosa said owning the land will put the city in a better position to ascertain who owns the trees.
"We are not laying down on this,” said Formosa. “We’ll be in a much better position to further solve this dilemma as owners.”
