City of Powell River Council has directed staff to prepare a report on the sale or lease of a Timberlane property to qathet Pickleball Association.
At an August 21 council meeting, councillor Cindy Elliott said it was great that the city would be moving forward with a report, and that she is interested in options that protect the city’s ability to have first right of refusal if the pickleball association should decide to sell the property. She said if there was a lease, the city would be protected.
“I’m wondering if whoever is writing the report could consider those concerns in the report?” asked Elliott.
Councillor George Doubt said he supported providing support for the pickleball association.
“It’s obvious that a pickleball facility has widespread support,” said Doubt. “The land is another question. I’m frankly not in favour of the concept of the city selling land. The oldest quote in the world is: ‘keep your land because they are not making any more.’
“The city has had a whole bunch of requests for land. Some have been quite longstanding. We need to think about all those when we are making decisions to dispose of the land. We leased some land on the airport property to someone who was going to build a hangar. One of the conditions of the lease was that they build a building that could be used for industrial purposes, and if they didn’t start by a certain time and didn’t complete by a certain time, the land would revert back to the city.”
Doubt said he generally prefers leases. He said if the land is to be sold to the pickleball association, he would want the city to get fair value for the property, and if the facility is not built, that the city gets the property back.
Councillor Trina Isakson said the city has older motions related to the use of city-owned land by groups or organizations in the community. She said her question to staff is, taking a look at some of the backlog of motions, how does staff prioritize acting on previous motions from council regarding sale of city-owned property?
Director of planning services Jason Gow said it’s an issue that staff finds is in need of prioritization.
“That would be something for council to consider, providing clear direction to staff,” said Gow. “Which of those many motions related to city-owned property is paramount?”
Councillor Rob Southcott said he had a concern about the slope of the property in question. Gow said a geotechnical report has not been done for the land.
Mayor Ron Woznow said members of the standing committee on city properties for a pickleball facility did a walk-through of the site and there was a consensus that there was not a major slope issue from a construction point of view.
Woznow said he has been talking to other BC mayors who have had pickleball facilities go into their communities, and he has heard about the positive impact those facilities have had. He said Vernon, for example, provided not only the land, but some additional funding for that community’s facility.
“The importance of this facility is that it is an opportunity for all ages to come together,” said Woznow. “The other important factor is we have more land, on average, than any other community in BC. I have heard continuously, why aren’t you using the land you have?
“It [a pickleball facility] supports the community objectives in our strategic plan, it will result in a reason for people to come to Powell River, and will also generate a lot of revenue for a variety of different commercial facilities here. Everything I have heard is we will receive significant benefit if we proceed with this motion.”
The original recommendation that council received was for a staff report on the sale of the Timberlane property for a pickleball facility. Isakson proposed an amendment to the motion, so that lease could also be considered.
“My rationale for doing this is in speaking to some of the questions we have on council,” said Isakson. “I know the recommendation of the committee is for sale, but I’ve heard expressions of interest for leasing, and hearing from our staff on those differences.
“Pickleball is such an asset to the health of our community, and also, there are other huge assets to our community that deserve consideration.”
The amendment to include the lease option carried, with Woznow and councillor Jim Palm opposed. The main motion, including both sale and lease of the property, passed unanimously.
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