Duane Hicks
Town council is holding off on tendering the proposed Erin Crescent subdivision and will revisit the topic during the 2018 budget process.
Council narrowly voted down two version of a motion to tender for the project during its regular meeting Monday night.
After the meeting, Mayor Roy Avis told the Times he felt now is not the right time to start another subdivision project in town.
“What I think we’ll be doing is putting it to the 2018 budget process,” he remarked.
“At the present time, we’re in a situation where we don’t really have any idea what the mill is doing,” Mayor Avis added.
“It’s nice to say we sold all of the lots in the Huffman subdivision except for one and we should have lots available–I agree 100 percent,” he noted.
“But the cost of doing it is very, very expensive,” he stressed. “It’s quite a bit more than the cost of doing the Huffman site.
“There’s more lots, the ground’s unstable, there’s many things.”
Mayor Avis feels council made the right decision to “back off and take another look.”
During an open house in late July, neighbourhood residents had questions about whether multi-residential housing would be permitted or whether they would be able to buy lots located behind their current homes, the mayor pointed out.
“I don’t think we’ve come to a conclusion on whether those things would be incorporated or not,” he conceded.
“I just think it’s a little premature [to tender the job],” he added. “I think we have to sit down, take a better look.
“I’m always on the cautious side.”
Earlier in Monday’s meeting, the mayor and some councillors spoke out against the motion as they felt putting the project to tender with a timeline attached implied the town definitely was going ahead with the new subdivision.
The timeline indicated the sewer and water installation take place this fall. Site services then would have been installed starting next spring, with curbing and paving to be completed in the fall.
Coun. Doug Kitowski said he doesn’t want to rush on any decisions, adding Huffman Court isn’t even completely full yet.
He added he also has a problem with “trying to get into competition with somebody that wants to come in here.”
“We know there are people that want to come in here and build apartments or houses or whatever,” Coun. Kitowski said.
“I don’t think we should be in a hurry to be a competitor of theirs,” he stressed. “They’re not going think very highly of us if we did that.
“I think we just kind of take it easy, see what happens by next spring, and move on from there.”
But Coun. Paul Ryan noted while there might be interest in building an apartment building in town, he believes no one will do another subdivision here.
“There’s too much upfront money and you don’t make a profit until you sell the last two pieces of property,” he noted.
“It just doesn’t happen in these small towns like ours.”
Coun. Ken Perry said he would like to see the Erin Crescent subdivision referred to the 2018 budget process.
“It’s a huge expense,” he noted. “We haven’t discussed it money-wise to any great degree and I think we should give it due process at the budget process.”
But Fort Frances CAO Doug Brown noted such projects have to be tendered with a timeline included in order to get some numbers so they can price lots.
He added getting pricing is not the same as making a commitment.
Coun. Ryan said there’s been controversy already about how much lots might cost, but it’s very hard to determine accurate prices without getting an actual quote or bid on the work.
“And then you can figure out what each lot will cost you,” he reasoned.
“If the cost is too high, you do not award the job. It’s a simple as that.
“What we’re looking for here is hard numbers so we can make the final decision–do you go ahead or not, and in what year or not?” Coun. Ryan added.
As previously reported, the Erin Crescent subdivision would consist of 27 lots of varying sizes in the northeast part of town.
