"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Thursday 12 June 2014

Now you see it...now you don't

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Sentiment in its place":

I think that wreck that was supposed to be part of the Heritage Park thingee is in even worse condition but no one has been inside for years from what I gather. One wonders at what stage a town has to demand that a property be cleaned up. If it was just a matter of the grass never being cut there would be a by-law officer on the doorstep.

Posted by Anonymous to Our Town and Its Business at 12 June 2014 13:01


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The Report  to Council on the  proposal, noted four  contractors were consulted., one an expert on heritage re-development. 
  
They concluded there was no place for public participation in such a scheme.

The Readman House should be demolished, they said.

A site plan was approved for the property ten years ago.  Another example of many many hours of planning  on a project that came to nought.

The  building has been  boarded up since then. Before that it was rented  out in units.

No light  or heat in all of those years and who knows what living and dying  behind the boards.

We  had  the experience with the Petch House. We  know the deterioration that occurs.

Yet the  approved site plan calls for the  Readman House to be incorporated in re-development of multiple town houses.

The property has been for sale since  site plan approval.  Obviously, no buyers. despite shortage of building sites.

Builder-developers would be the target market. Only a builder-developer would know the plan was not do-able. Even with shared driveway access with the Hillary house ,it was never going to happen.

An unwary speculator might be seduced.

Failure to sell  therefore is not mysterious.

The real estate owner agreed with anything that would lead to approval of the plan for multiple residential . Asking price, calculated by number of units. would  maximize profit.

Only if the project was feasible.

It never was.

Hence came the idea of  persuading the municipality.  Staff reported , appraised value was  according to number of units that could be built.

Only they couldn't

11 comments:

Anonymous said...


It's too nice a sunny-rainy June day to rehash old war stories of things that are now nothing but memory.

Sit back, make yourself comfortable, close your eyes and imagine you are some eight miles from Salisbury and the vernal equinox is almost upon us.

There before you stands one of this world's most famously mysterious sights, a ring of stone that could date back into the mists of time, 3,000 B.C.

Stonehenge.

What pagan folk lived there? And what live here?

Anonymous said...

Can we dispense with the references to the Petch House as some kind of shining example of how things should be done?

The Petch House was a pile of rubble that should have been torched. No one wanted it. No one wanted to pay to move it. It was only after some money was presented to the Town for it did everyone clamour to board the Petch House band-wagon.

Now, it sits on a site and is just as used now as it was before. I don't know how we can even say that it is as old as it is. 90 percent of it is new Home Depot wood.

It's a sham. It's was and is a waste of resources. The idea of a wedding venue is crazy, you could get the same impact by going over to Home Depot and get married in a garden shed.

Anonymous said...

15:37
" There is something almost laughable about the fury of the entitled class "

Anonymous said...

I found that discussion about Petch interesting. That guy [ no name ] from staff said they were assessing the suggestions received. It crossed my mind that staff had been asked to get suggestions - not to assess them. Would we even know there had been any if E had not raised the subject ?

Anonymous said...


With a little planning there could be multiple weddings at Home Depot.

Anonymous said...

True, 17:19, with BBQs to cater the reception, lots of toilets, and plumbing and lighting supplies (unlike the Petch House).

Anonymous said...

I see the resident troll is talking to itself again. Sense of humour needs some work.

Anonymous said...

The resident troll is not trying to be funny you schmuck.

Anonymous said...

Good morning, Evelyn.
Where were we before that $90 million blast of hot air?

Anonymous said...

The resident troll should hold its bile until ideas & figures are presented. Until then it is just the usual sour grapes.

Anonymous said...

Why was the 'good points' comment deleted?