-Land could be used for new fire hall, affordable housing-

OSOYOOS TIMES-January 28, 2009-

By Paul EverestrnOsoyoos Times

At an in-camera meeting on Jan. 19, the Town of Osoyoos finalized its purchase of a 2.3-hectare parcel of land, known as the Richter property, located on the southwest corner of Hwy. 97 and 74th Avenue.
The Town paid $2.03 million for the property, which belonged to the Richter family, and plans to use the land to build a new fire hall, an affordable housing development and a new building for the Oliver-Osoyoos RCMP detachment.
An agreement to purchase the land was completed in September, 2008.
The parcel is within the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) but the Town's Official Community Plan (OCP) indicates the site as an area of future growth.
In a Jan. 23 media release, the Town said it has been told that the Agricultural Land Commission will look favourably on removing the parcel from the ALR.rnOn Jan. 24, Mayor Stu Wells said the property will likely be released from the reserve because the commission has indicated that it prefers future growth in the South Meadowlark area, the part of Osoyoos where the land parcel is located, as opposed to other areas further north along Hwy. 97.
That is our expansion area in our OCP, Wells said, adding that the Town's planning department is already drawing up an application to the commission.
Wells also said that Osoyoos town council has seen rough drafts of a master plan for the South Meadowlark area.
The plan, which has not yet been approved by council, will outline how the Town services the area.
The Town is considering the property as a location for a new fire hall because the former B.C. Fire Commissioner told the Town in 2007 that the current fire hall, located on Main Street beside Osoyoos Town Hall, did not meet provincial standards in that it needed to be closer to Hwy. 97 and it would not accommodate the size of newer fire trucks.
As for the possibility of building a new home for the RCMP on the property, Wells said the current detachment building, located at the intersection of Hwy. 97 and Eagle Court, is too small for police operations.
They certainly need more space.rnAccording to the media release, the Town bought the land for less cost per acre than any alternate sites that were available.
Wells said the Town was careful to avoid inflating its purchase price for the land by bidding for the parcel as an anonymous buyer through an agent, thus discouraging any land speculation.
At first the Town and the land's previous owners couldn't agree on a price, Wells said, and both parties walked away from the table last spring.
The owners wanted more than $2 million while the Town was only willing to pay about $1.8 million, he said.
After several months, however, both sides began negotiating again and settled on a price.
The purchase is being paid for from Town reserves and special-account funds, so there will be no borrowing required and no tax implications for Osoyoos residents.
In November, the Town's finance director, Jim Zakall said that money for the purchase came from an accumulated surplus that included density bonuses paid to the Town from the developers of the Indigo condominium development.
Some of the monies given to the Town were recently given back to the Indigo developers, with an agreement that they eventually pay it back to the Town, in order for the development to finally get off the ground after being stalled for the past several months.
Wells said he didn't think the return of monies to the Indigo developers would affect the land purchase.
Not that I'm aware of because we're still keeping a fair amount of (Indigo) money.rnWells also said that parts of the property not used for Town projects could be used to help the Town recover some of the purchase costs or be devoted to social projects such as affordable housing.
I don't think the Town should actually be operating affordable, social, worker housing he said. But it could be (given) to non-profit groups.rnOr, he added, the Town could consider selling parts of the property to developers.
Wells said the community may be asked in the future for input on what the Town should do with the property.
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