Land transfer too risky: councillors
Plan to hand over $10M worth of land to non-profit stalls
Several city councillors balked Tuesday at the fine details of a plan to hand over $10-million worth of land for $1 to a new non-profit developer.
The land doesn’t look like much — several gravel parking lots near the Coliseum, a construction laydown area in McCauley and other blighted sites in the inner city — but councillors worried the non-profit developer might sit on the land, or sell the land to a private developer who could sit on it even longer.
“(If it) does nothing with the land for 30 years, that goes against the entire principle of why you’re in business,” said Coun. Michael Oshry, who convinced two others to force the new developer to come back to council before selling off a piece of land.
That had Mayor Don Iveson and Coun. Michael Walters worried the effort was going off the rails.
“This feels to me like when the rubber hits the road to finally make this happen, the first thing we do is snare it with a bit of red tape,” said Walters, before Iveson sent it from committee to council without a vote in hopes of finding a solution.
The non-profit Community Development Corp. was set up recently with the goal of turning blighted or forgotten pieces of cityowned land into something than benefits the surrounding community. It’s supposed to run at arm’slength from council.
The corporation will work with neighbourhoods to figure out what should be built on the land, likely focusing on affordable home ownership, social enterprise businesses and other employment opportunities in neighbourhoods that need it, said Martin GarberConrad, head of the Edmonton Community Foundation.
The foundation is giving the non-profit $10 million in startup capital to match the city ’s $10 million in land. Garber-Conrad said they just selected a board, are in the process of hiring an executive director, and will start consultations with communities as soon as staff are in place.
He was hoping the corporation could take ownership of some of the land by late this year, but now that’s dependent on council’s decision. Oshry’s suggestion would “add uncertainty and time,” Garber-Conrad said. “There’s a considerable risk the whole thing will be reopened every time it comes to council.”
Three of the sites are in McCauley. That neighbourhood has been worried about new subsidized housing being built in the area and further increasing a concentration of poverty, but community league president Phil O’Hara said this effort is finally different.
“It provides an opportunity for our neighbourhood to be part of the conversation. The conversation isn’t going to be happening behind closed doors,” said O’Hara.
The new non-profit is trying to create economically successful projects and be self-sustaining as it tackles new projects, but O’Hara said he hopes cheap land at the outset lets it be creative.