No to that

Paradise fears land sale would set a precedent

By Mark Squibb/June 30, 2022

Paradise council has twice denied a resident’s request to purchase a small parcel of land adjacent to their property because of fears that approval of the sale would, as councillor Elizabeth Laurie put it, “open the floodgates.”

Council discussed the issue during the June 21 public council meeting.

“The owner of the property at 64 Lanark Drive had appeared before the Protective Services Committee as a delegation earlier this year,” explained Deputy Mayor Kimberley Street. “They had submitted a request to either purchase or fence in a piece of town owned land which is adjacent to the rear of their property. They were informed by a letter on April 21, 2022 that the Town would not entertain agreeing to either of these requests.”

The homeowners met with the committee in May, visual aids in hand, and requested the Town reconsider the matter — but to no avail.

“The committee discussed the matter following the delegation’s presentation and suggested it was not a good idea to sell, or allow the fencing of this piece of land as it may set a precedent for future requests, and in general, the Town’s intention would be to maintain ownership of public lands,” summarized Street.

Councillor Larry Vaters said he agreed in principle with the Town maintaining ownership of public land, but asked whether it had any plans to develop this particular parcel.

Mayor Dan Bobbett noted the land was in the general area of the conservation zone near Adams Pond.

Street noted the area is also near Open Space zoning, and there are no plans to develop it at the moment.

“There’s no plans to develop anything in that area, but we wouldn’t really know in 10 years, maybe, or who knows when the Town decides they’re going to do (something) with that particular piece,” said Street.

She added that even though the committee recommended council reject the request, she’s glad the residents took the time to reach out and enquire.

“A lot of people don’t do that,” said Street. “So, we appreciate that… but if we did go ahead with something like that, it could garner a lot of requests from other areas of town as well.”

The recommendation to refuse the request once again was met with kickback from councillor Glen Carew.

“As you can see from my last vote, on Balsamwood (a prior land sale request), I certainly feel that protecting town lands is important, but under certain conditions,” said Carew. “I also feel that it makes sense to allow property owners in the town to use, lease, or purchase small parcels of town land.”

Carew admitted he had originally voted against the application back in April, but that the residents’ presentation changed his mind.

“I feel that this is a very small parcel of land that sits seven metres, or almost 20 feet, up over a steep rock embankment, and it’s totally useless to the Town,” said Carew. “It’s part of the 30-metre buffer back from the pond, I do believe, and, again, it’s on top of a steep rock embankment… it’s totally useless to the Town.”

Carew said he was applying a “common-sense approach” and voting in favour of allowing the residents to purchase the land.

Councillor Elizabeth Laurie however, was not swayed by the residents’ presentation.

“They did a really good presentation, and I appreciate where they’re coming from, as the deputy mayor had said, but in my last twelve-and-a-half years we’ve had a lot of requests like this, and from my experience, we’re making the right decision here by refusing this,” said Laurie. “We could have the flood gate open on these types of requests, and then where do we stop?”

She added the land may seem useless now, but it may prove beneficial to the Town in the future.

Councillor Patrick Martin asked for confirmation on whether the land was in the conservation zone or not, and Bobbett affirmed it was. Martin then pointed out that, as the land is part of the conservation zone, it cannot be fenced or developed.

“As Elizabeth said I’ve seen requests come in over the last eight years and we’ve denied every one that’s come in looking to purchase town land, so I wouldn’t want to set a precedent here,” said Martin.

Councillor Deborah Quilty too allowed she has seen many similar requests over the years, and didn’t recall any being approved.

Still, Carew would not be swayed.

“I don’t know how many actually went over and looked at those individual parcels of land adjacent to that property, but essentially that hill where the houses are developed on Lanark essentially follow the outline of the pond, and there are some of those properties that are just next door that do have the easement right back to the end of the bank, which is essentially what this resident is looking for,” said Carew.

Street said the situation is unfortunate, but that selling the land is still “something the Town is not interested in doing, or has been in the past.”

Laurie added that when the residents purchased their property they knew exactly what land they were buying.

“This wasn’t a situation where we made a zoning change and changed some of the zoning of their property or areas next to it,” she said.

With the exception of Carew, who voted against the motion, council voted to deny the request to sell the land.