Huntsville Council has voted in favour of purchasing 10 Veterans Way for $250,000 from the estate of Shirley May Wheeler, a town lot containing a two-bedroom house located beside the Huntsville Curling Club.
Discussions about the purchase took place in closed session council meetings over the past few months and a decision to move forward with the purchase was ratified at council’s July 22, 2019 regular council meeting with no further discussion.
Deputy Mayor Karin Terziano said the plan is to remove the house from the lot and turn the property into a parking lot. “And we will enter into an agreement for the curling club to have use of it in the winter season, which will help alleviate the parking problems around the curling club, and we will have it as a municipal parking lot year-round really but it’ll primarily be for curling use in the winter months,” she said.
She said the Town had committed funds to the curling club to facilitate the club’s move to McCulley-Roberston Sports Complex but that did not materialize.
“When the whole project of a brand new curling club became just too expensive to actually do, and they decided to spend what money they had fixing up their existing club, then we decided that the money we had committed to putting in services and giving them land at the ball diamond… we would follow through with that commitment in helping with the parking issue,” added Terziano.
“It’s also a good spend on additional parking in the town, not just for people who might shop downtown but with the many events that we have in town, such as triathlons and things like that, the parking is always at a premium. It’s a location that’s halfway between Town Hall and the Summit Centre… it might not be the prime parking lot if you’re just thinking of downtown shopping but overall following through on our commitment to help the curling club at McCulley-Robertson, we still thought it was a good fit.”
The Town will keep the property and work out an agreement with the curling club for its use sometime between the months of October and March. She thinks the agreement will also stipulate that the club would be responsible for plowing and snow removal in winter.
“It’s a good thing. More parking spaces downtown and it helps the curling club a little bit as well,” said Mayor Scott Aitchison, who also noted that it would help prevent curlers from parking on the street in the wintertime
But Royal Canadian Legion Branch 232 president Bruce Frank is shaking his head. Frank has lived across the street from the house slated to be demolished for parking for more than 35 years, and he wonders why area residents weren’t consulted.
He said there’s parking at the legion and it’s seldom ever used by those who are not attending an event at the legion unless the Main Street is closed for an event.
He also doesn’t think it’ll make a huge difference with issues related to curlers parking on the street in the wintertime. “It may alleviate some of the problems but people are still going to park on the street because they will refuse to walk that extra 20 feet to the curling rink,” he argued. “They’ll still block our driveways and our sidewalks, that’s my feeling.”
He noted that Huntsville Councillor Nancy Alcock recently appeared in the news talking about the dire need for more affordable housing.
“Now our Town has gone out and bought a perfectly fine two-bedroom home and they’re going to tear it down and make it into a parking lot,” said Frank. “That is my major upset. With the amount of housing in this town that isn’t available for people who can afford it, a perfectly good house they’re going to tear it down and make it into a parking lot for a private club.”
He said other organizations such as the legion, which is open to the public, could also use that kind of money. “If they gave me $250,000 to relieve our suffering down there I would love it. We have lots of work that we need to be done, the Town has helped us out with our draw, licenses and everything, which is great, but $250,000 is just the start. Now they have to pay to tear it down, they have to pay to have it dug up, have sewage and drainage system put in, so it’s going to be a lot more than what we expect,” he concluded.
Here’s where the $250,000 will come from, according to Town documents:
“1. Capital Replacement Reserve: $ 172,848
2. Parking In-lieu: $ 54,019
3. Other Transportation Development Charges: $ 23,133,” for a total of $250,000, plus legal expenses.
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So, lets spend another $250K to upgrade this tear down house to bring it up to code and make it fully accessible…wait…bedrooms are upstairs…make that $300K… now we’re at $550K . I agree with the town decision.
Tear down the old rink, build low income high-rise on both lots.
With the rental and affordable housing issue I think the house may be used for a better purpose than a parking lot.
I completely agree with Mr. Frank: The idea of a multi-purpose athletic building (including a new curling rink) should never have been abandoned in the first place. Now the existing rink is applying band-aids to cover some of their deficiencies, and the Town has been quilted into misapplying our tax revenues again. Sometimes, one has to plan for long-term improvements. Doesn’t this Council want to leave a memorable legacy? Why have we always taken a backseat to Bracebridge for almost 50 years (when they were awarded District government)?
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Why are we even pretending that a curling club belongs in the middle of a residential neighbourhood? If it wasn’t already there, the OP zoning wouldn’t have allowed it. Am I misunderstanding, or is the considerable parking-in-lieu contribution accumulated from developments which are approved with insufficient parking? If so, this a doubly ironic purchase. Joni (now 75 years young) was considerably ahead of her time when she averred: “you pave paradise; put up a parking lot (meaningful laugh”.
Well put Frank, why was this issue a closed door meeting??