More downtown lots seem headed for the open market

More commercial property could be available downtown late this year or early in 2009 if the city opts to open up three mixed-use commercial lots downtown.

More commercial property could be available downtown late this year or early in 2009 if the city opts to open up three mixed-use commercial lots downtown.

At a council and senior management meeting at noon Wednesday, senior city planner Zoe Morrison brought forward a map.

It shows the three uncleared properties at the end of Steele Street, behind the Sarah Steele building, zoned for mixed-use commercial development.

While the map shows three properties, Morrison told council the lots could be consolidated into one before being put on the market through one of three processes.

Together, the properties take up 1,390 square metres of land, or at the same size per property, 463.3 square metres each, she said.

City engineering manager Wayne Tuck noted part of the road right-of-way for Seventh Avenue could also be sold if the lots were put on the market as a block.

Similar to the properties in Porter Creek that are being opened up for development, the lots are zoned and designated properly, but were never serviced.

Morrison said she’s unsure of the exact reason why utilities were never extended to the properties. She commented it may have had something to do with how close the sites are to the clay cliffs, though a 2002 geo-hazard risk study on the escarpment placed the sites at a low risk.

An appraisal done earlier this year valued the three lots together at $270,000 at $18 per square foot, which would increase if services were provided to the site.

While the lots could also be sold separately, council members who were present spoke in favour of selling it off as one lot.

Some also spoke in favour of it being the right area to consider relaxing the city’s four-storey height limit, but as management noted, that would mean a change to bylaws. As well, there wouldn’t be a guarantee of the relaxation to developers without some sort of public process.

Whoever bought the land could bring that forward though as an application, it was pointed out.

Most council members also spoke in favour of going through a tender process to sell the land to the highest bidder rather than a lottery or proposal process.

A lottery would see a price set with the names of prospective buyers then being drawn.

A proposal process would see developers bring forward their plans to council, which would make the selection based on what they want to see on the land.

As planning manager Mike Gau pointed out, going to proposals would involve an additional process to determine exactly what the city wants to achieve with the land sale.

The city has received numerous calls about the land from prospective developers already, Morrison noted.

The Eco-Housing Association of Whitehorse has already requested it be given a chance to buy the lots for a housing project, for example.

Before the land would go out to tender, council would have to formally decide whether to sell the lots as a whole, whether to include part of the road in the land and what process to use in the sale.

That would then involve passing a subdivision to consolidate the lots and a road closure bylaw to close off the section of road.

A bylaw to authorize the sale of the land would then go forward prior to the formal sale of the sites.

Morrison said realistically, with all those processes, it would likely be the end of the year or early in 2009 before the land would be on the market.