The Erin Crescent lots put on sale by the Town of Fort Frances last December will increase the residential tax base. This is expected to benefit Fort Frances residents after the demolition of the mill.
The town purchased the lots from the previous developer in 2008. The Fort Frances council approved the sale of 27 lots on Erin Crescent in January 2020. The prices for the lots range from $63,900 to $115,200.
Lisa Slomke, municipal clerk, said the cost to operating a municipality is divided between industrial land, commercial taxpayers and residential taxpayers.
“The more people that you have contributing to the tax base, then the weight is less on individual residents,” Slomke said. “We all know the mill is coming down, that’s a large taxpayer that we don’t have any more. The lost tax revenue will need to be spread somewhere.”
Mayor June Caul said the money to be collected in residential taxes from owners of properties on Erin Crescent depends on the size of the lot and will be determined by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC). Caul said based on the residential tax rate in 2020, the owner of a house that is worth $300,000 will pay about $5,700 in property tax per year.
The current zoning bylaw for the Erin Crescent lots is residential type one (R1). Under this bylaw, Erin Crescent lots could only be used to build a single detached dwelling, a home occupation, a group home or a community garden.
However, Cody Vangel, chief building official and municipal planner, said the current zoning bylaw does permit a second dwelling unit to be located within the primary single family dwelling.
“The zoning bylaw does have a number of specifications for these,” Vangel said. “But these can certainly be used to house different family members or rental incomes. But that is certainly an option within the parameters of the zoning [bylaw].”
Slomke said buyers have five building seasons to build the property after they purchase the lot.
“That’s so people don’t buy land and sit on it for years and years,” Slomke said. “At the end of the day, council wants to see development. That’s how our community grows.”
If buyers do not follow this timeline, Slomke said the town has the option of purchasing it back for the price that they originally paid.
“Council would consider each of those on their own merit and the person would have the opportunity to either speak to council on their own or to write a letter indicating what the situation is,” Slomke said. “Everybody’s situation is always different. We try and take that into account when we take reports and when council is considering something as significant as buying land back.”
Even though there is a two-year minimum waiting list to get a contractor in Fort Frances, Slomke said a five building season window is usually quite manageable.
That being said, Caul stressed that council will not slam the books on buyers who are having difficulty finding a contractor.
“If some other incident comes up that puts them behind schedule from where they were supposed to be, they can call council and talk about it once they’ve discovered what needs to be done,” Caul said. “And they’ll inform us what they suggest needs to be done. We’re very flexible that way.”
Given residents on Kaitlyn Drive were having an empty land in their backyard to walk their dogs and park their boats, Caul said she met with some residents from Kaitlyn Drive and Sixth Street to answer their questions on what their neighbourhood will look like after the development of Erin Crescent.
A question Caul received from Kaitlyn Drive residents was whether they could buy a lot and build a garage to park their boats.
“Our feeling was that this is a residential area. And if we were going give people the opportunity to build houses and have the houses be right next door just where somebody stores their boats and their sewing machine it would not make for a very pleasant looking area,” Caul said.
“We’ve never had any other concerns come forward from them. They received the information we gave them and they seem fine with it.”
