13 November 2012

Rail Lands Almost Paid Off

North Bay Ontario - After more than a decade, one of the city's most controversial and promised-filled land purchases is nearly off the books.
 
Principal and interest payments on loans for the Canadian Pacific Rail lands, purchased in 1999 for about $12.5 million, will be paid off in 2014. That will mean an end to annual contributions residents have been making through a rail lands capital levy on their tax bills.
 
Deputy mayor Sean Lawlor said $490,000 is outstanding on the purchase of 14 hectares of rail lands. He said ratepayers will be charged the capital levy this year and a final payment next year.
 
A line item on tax bills showing the cost of the rail lands purchase, with the principal and interest payment broken out separately, was introduced in 2003. But it was removed in 2011 for accounting efficiencies.
 
Plans to reclaim the rail lands had dated back as far as the early 1920s. And the purchase of the property in the late 1990s was seen as an opportunity to open up the area to major development, including the long defunct $30-million Canada's Passage North proposal.
 
The planned 57,000-square-foot tourism initiative was to include a 3D theatre and a historic rail platform to an outdoor amphitheatre. Also at the time, Springbank Property Group wanted to build a waterfront arena/sports complex.
 
Both proposals, however, were nixed in 2001 due to doubts government funding would come through, as well as concerns about ongoing operating costs and the success of the concept.
 
Instead, the city began looking at a residential development, an office building that would house a new call centre, and a Tim Hortons restaurant. The Community Waterfront Friends' vision also began to take shape, including the relocation of the North Bay museum into a renovated and restored CP Rail Station.
 
The city eventually adopted the park-like waterfront vision that's been unfolding in recent years due to significant costs associated with environmental cleanup, which the city agreed to assume as part of the purchase.
 
An estimated $22 million has been invested in the waterfront development to date, including the purchase of the land.
 
The city paid $4.3 million for property, but also agreed to pay for track relocation and construction of a new Ottawa Valley Railway building, bringing the total to more than $12 million.
 
The deal, however, has been mired in controversy because the city ultimately paid millions of dollars for contaminated land and assumed all environmental liability.
 
It was a newly elected deputy mayor Al McDonald in 2001 who fought successfully to make details of the negotiations public.
 
"There's no question it was controversial at the time," said McDonald, noting the public wanted to know back then how the deal unfolded.
 
He said it was difficult for the community in the short term, but the purchase has proven to be positive in the long term.
 
The city recently received funding to conduct a study into potential commercial tourism opportunities at the waterfront, as well as the possible reconstruction and relocation of the King's Landing wharf. The study will look at the possibility of leasing the waterfront marina to a private operator.
 
McDonald said work at the waterfront will help spur the development of several pieces of vacant land surrounding the waterfront, including the former Kenroc/Uniroc site and a parcel across from the Rona store on Memorial Drive.
 
Ideally, McDonald said he would like to see Canadore College and Nipissing University establish a campus near the waterfront. He said that would bring students and faculty in the area, many who would likely want to live nearby.
 
Gord Young.