New Maryland looking for ideas on land development
Published Thursday August 21st, 2008
New Maryland village council is open to suggestions when it comes to a 13-hectare (33-acre) plot it plans to buy.
Mayor Frank Dunn said Forbes Property, as it is known to village residents, will be developed but not before a public consultation process is launched.
The announcement came minutes after council voted 3-1 in favour of purchasing the land for $200,000.
"Any major development that is going to take part on that land will be for the benefit of New Maryland people, and whatever we may do will be done with the consultation of the public," he said. "We have a strategic development plan ongoing right now."
The acquisition of 13 hectares of land off of Route 101 complements the 3.6 hectares (nine acres) council purchased from the same property owner 21/2 years ago. Although, there isn't yet a plan for the land, Dunn said buying it was too good of a deal to pass up.
"We had an interest in this land when we bought the first part of Forbes, and at that time we told them if they planned to sell the rest we would have an interest.
"Then, just recently, they spurred it on us, and we didn't really have any plans, but our intent was to develop some in our strategic planning in September, so we decided to buy it with that in mind."
Deputy mayor Judy Wilson-Shee said the land should be used for recreational facilities.
"If we were to turn this land over to recreation, the possibilities would be endless," she said. "We could create more green spaces and more parks. There is just so much we could do with it."
Dunn said recreation was one of many possibilities on the table.
"We will either use it for the people of New Maryland, or sell it to a developer that becomes interested," he said.
"We also are going to try to keep a portion of the land for the future benefit of our city, because we are starting a strategic plan and who knows what will come out of that."
Village council plans to fund the purchase of the land with money from the Municipal Capital Borrowing Board.
More City & Region
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
Comments (1)
All comments are subject to the site Terms of Use. For a full commenting tutorial click here.
Our editorial team relies on filtering technology and our visitor community to identify inappropriate comments. In the event that a site user has submitted offensive content that has evaded our filter, please select the option to Flag As Inappropriate presented within the comment. Thank you for helping to keep this site clean.