City eyes plan for unused property
‘An opportunity to generate additional revenues’
St. Catharines city council has approved in principle the creation of a municipal development corporation to handle city real estate, though some councillors balked at the estimated $400,000 to $900,000 annual price tag.
The corporation concept, used in Oakville, Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and other cities, would see a dedicated body look at underutilized city land and the best ways to maximize its potential.
“It’s an opportunity for the city to generate additional revenues, to create public realm and infrastructure improvements and to be very creative in terms of its real estate response,” said consultant Rowan Faludi, a partner at Toronto’s Urban Metrics Inc., who presented a feasibility study to council Monday.
He said in particular, that includes creating market, nonmarket and affordable housing opportunities that are much needed in the city.
A corporation, if created, would take on various aspects of development, such as acquiring and disposing of land, entertaining potential partnerships and looking at strategies for surplus municipal lands.
The consultants identified 12 city properties for potential development, including the former Garden City Arena on Gale Crescent, Dalhousie House on Lakeport Road and the former fire prevention office on Academy Street.
Councillors voted 8-5 to move forward in principle. City staff will come back with an implementation strategy later this year that council will vote on.
Mayor Mat Siscoe told councillors it is important they see an implementation strategy, which can vary in cost depending on the direction council takes.
“I think we all agree that we don’t want to cost taxpayers money unnecessarily. But I think it’s important to recognize that properties laying vacant and not being used are costing taxpayers money,” Siscoe said.
“It’s a lost opportunity cost. There’s a value locked up in those
properties and some of them are not performing functions useful or suitable to what the corporation requires at this point.”
St. Catharines now has one staff member who manages its real estate assets, including acquisition and disposition of land, leases, easements, special projects and other transactions. The city owns more than 400 parcels of land and manages 170 buildings and facilities.
The corporation could have a board of directors, including councillors, senior staff and industry leaders, with an executive management team and staff with specific skill sets.
Faludi said the estimated annual cost of $400,000 to $900,000 would ultimately be funded through potential real estate dispositions, sales and development opportunities.
Councillors who voted in favour of the corporation in principle were hopeful it will help guide the city on how it can create more affordable housing.
“We’ve heard over and over and over again that the private sector is not interested or not able to build homes, affordable units for people,” said St. Patrick’s Coun. Robin Mcpherson. “This is our opportunity to get involved and actually do something about it.”
St. George’s Coun. Kevin Townsend said Createto, which manages the City of Toronto’s real estate, has been taking unique steps by looking at underutilized parking garages to build affordable housing units and adding multiplexes and garden suites to address the housing shortage.
But Port Dalhousie Coun. Bruce Williamson said St. Catharines is not comparable to “megacity Toronto.”
“We are a local-tier municipality. We’re talking about spending $400,000 to $900,000 a year, adding a bunch more staff, another layer of bureaucracy to deal with 12 properties,” Williamson said.
“We’ve got to be a little bit pragmatic. We’re looking at a 10.5 per cent property tax increase further down to the budget.”
St. Andrew’s Coun. Joe Kushner said he is not in favour of creating “another bureaucracy” either and didn’t see the concept as a panacea to all the city’s problems.
He said staff can do the job properly and can bring in expertise when needed as it has in the past.
“In talking about being innovative, we have to be careful. We can’t jump on every bandwagon that comes along. We did that with the highly technical washroom we had and that hasn’t been a raging success for the amount of money we spent,” he said, referring to the self-cleaning washroom that has been repeatedly vandalized since opening on Geneva Street this month.
But St. Patrick’s Coun. Caleb Ratzlaff said a municipal development corporation will allow the city to act quickly on real estate deals and build partnerships and relationships to create affordable housing.