Item 4 of tomorrow's General Committee Agenda is the Aurora Promenade Streetscape Design and Implementation Plan. It is recommended Council endorse the plan.
The cost is $2,750.000. over the next three years with $80,000 a year for plant material.
The information provided about mortgage experience this morning came from an original source.
When information is provided to me as an elected representative , from a person who has had the experience,to make me aware of the impact of town decisions, I generally accept it. I belive a Councillor is the person who should know about it.
Better sooner than later.
Council has had to remove a clause from an agreement of sale because financing has been refused.
In that instance, the town was the vendor. If I'm not mistaken , the Regional Police Department was the purchaser.
But let me tell you about the Sprague House. Councillor Gaertner is the only other person who may re-call the particulars.
Bruce Sprague is a real estate agent . The house had been split up in rental units.
Then vacated with windows and doors boarded up.
A plan was processed for seventeen residential units to be constructed plus the original house remaining in place.
Access and egress proved to be difficult. John McIntyre agreed the Hillary property could be used to overcome the problem.
Mr.McIntyre ,as owner of a neighboring property .might have an interest in assisting the property maximize value.
Designation approved, the property was immediately listed .
It has been ever since.
Since and during the Council term of 2003/6
It's what Stronach is doing now, selling a 14.5 acre parcel with an allocation for 92 single family housing units.
The difference is, the Stronach land has been processed with professional expertise.
Bruce Sprague is a real estate agent.
The potential buyer for the Sprague property has to be a builder- developer.
One who knows what he is looking at.
The plan processed by Mr.Sprague would accommodate every suggestion made. .
The object was to get approval.
A plan for seventeen residential units, with a shell of a residence to remain and insufficient frontage for access and egress may not present as a viable building project.
It never sold.
Two reasons would prevent a sale.
1. The price . A real estate agent knows better than anyone, the value of a property is what a buyer is willing to pay.
2, The plan cannot be developed. It is not a feasible project.
Yet is is currently valued at highest and best use, being seventeen residential units, plus existing house on site.
That cannot be a secret.
It's been listed for seven years for God's Sake . With no takers.
Monday, 3 February 2014
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14 comments:
Meantime it is falling to pieces. I have to admit the guy has a point there. If I was stuck with a lemon, I would want to hand it off too,
Mr Stronach knows what he is doing. There is no way he is going to get tied up with the demands of Aurora's Council. If there are trees in his way, they will go. Just as this Council will be replaced by another, and then another.
Council have painted themselves into a nasty little corner. It would appear [ careful to be general ] that more money is going out than is coming in, . We badly need single family residences such as those Frank Stronach is planning and the revenue they will generate. That plan is viable.
I will not consider the other project in the same class. There has been no independent assessment of true market value nor a genuine feasibility study.
From what I am now reading, the majority members of council and the mayor seem to have taken it upon themselves to leave a tremendous legacy when they eventually decide not to run again or are voted out of office. I prefer the latter, and come this October. I can have no faith in the ability of these people to administer our town's affairs when lo and behold they reach for the gold ring - or is it platinum? What delusions have suddenly visited certain occupants of our town hall?
Downtown Aurora is to be redesigned, refurbished, rebuilt, all with taxpayer money, either by grant or by loan. Who will appraise each building, what it now is and what it might become with a few coats of paint, a couple of picture windows, an antiqued door? Will this be done by one individual or by a council committee? What knowledge will such a person or committee have, what expertise? This entire mental exercise is just that, an exercise, but without very much thought or mental input.
AND EVEN MORE FUNDAMENTALLY, FROM WHERE WILL THE MONEY FLOW?
The Promenade Study, which I have read in its entirety, is balderdash. It is an attempt to turn our downtown into that akin to Newmarket or better yet, Unionville. What does this increasingly insidious Special Projects Manager in the CAO's office know about architecture, about engineering, structural, mechanical and electrical, about anything to do with the restoration of an old building?
The Hillary-McIntyre Heritage Park Cost Benefit Study, prepared by the same firm that saddled us with the Promenade Study, is an even more contrived project for self gratification, indeed for self glorification. And if the latest numbers are to be believed, which strike me as ludicrous, the town will only have to pony up 50% of the cost, a mere $11,000,000, the balance to flow in through the beneficent generosity of fundraisers. What percentage of this is Frank Stronach expected to contribute? And by the way, I have suffered through this work in its entirety, courtesy of some Advil.
If we are to believe our council, they have valiantly worked and struggled to prepare a budget that will continue to provide the town's residents with the services to which they have become accustomed, and for a mere 3.8% increase, subject to some fine tuning adjustment. I commend them for this lengthy and somewhat boring task.
But then we jump across the room and find a council that is embedded in two gigantic schemes that will cost millions of dollars that we don't have, and with limited future development, will likely never have.
Are there now two parts of town, just as with the federal riding redistribution?
What, pray tell is going on? Is there no sanity left around the council table?
Oh my....$2 million of that is for concrete pattern sidewalks? Really??
Please don't tell me we are going to throw money at the core now that the owners of True Value are closing. Alot of downtown real estate has been recently purchased with the intention of building condominiums with retail below and no mention or love of restoring crappy old historical buildings buildings. Hmmm, patterned concrete indeed, which is slippery when wet, and can't be plowed by machine without ruining the finish. A coat of paint and more flowers will not solve Auroras "downtown" issues. Independent Retail can't survive here with property costs, rents and taxes at the ridiculous rates they currently are. New businesses can't afford to move in without really deep pockets. And the only time it is worth visiting, read:safe to visit, is during the street sale, when the road is closed to vehicles.
Just read staffs report of the potential loss and implication of not purchasing these properties either through "neglect" or "redevelopment"...What redevelopment? If these properties could have been picked up from a developer...It would have all ready happened! But they can't because of the heritage designation to them. You can't just tear these structures down. There would be riots in the streets for weeks! As far as the neglect goes...From reading the report two of them sound like there's are already signs of neglect because of finance and the Readman House is just a shell with some bricks attached to it and can’t be inhabitable at all. Their value will not appreciate if anything the reverse, a report that just came out today says that properties in Toronto and area are overvalued from 10-15%.
Perhaps the Promenade sidewalks could be heated so people wouldn't have to worry about slipping on ice and maybe breaking a limb.
Also snow clearance would be redundant.
21:19
You're right. I can't tell you how many retail/office type businesses have and are moving into the industrial areas because the rent are much lower off Yonge and Wellington St.
21:29
I can only disagree on one point. There would not be riots in the streets for weeks. Canadians do not do riots. Especially in an instance like this one. Someone is misjudging the electorate badly,
@21:29
I saw that report on over-valued Canadian real estate but didn't dare mention it up here. But, since you have, Aurora already has extremely high taxes, more spent on services than comparable towns, and it has become stagnant. We all know of businesses & residents who have been forced or chosen to leave.
Instead of reducing taxes, cleaning up excesses and courting businesses and jobs, we now propose to throw money at another self- entitled little core group.
A property cannot be valued at a price at which it has proven to be unable to sell over a period of years by a motivated seller.
Funny...I don't remember reading a market value to those properties on the report. If your saying that you can't put a price on a piece of property that's been for sale for years by a motivated seller. How did they come up with a selling price of $11 million?
23:39
Dunno. And I have family in real estate.
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