Residential development took centre stage at a recent Town of Vermilion council meeting as officials set the sale price for a northwest lot.
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“The Town of Vermilion has identified a need for additional residential lots. We’ve been on a parcel located on 53 Ave. between 66 St. and 67 St., comprising of approximately 1.41 acres for residential development,” said Marilyn Lavoie, the town’s director of corporate services.
The parcel has the potential to support up to 10 residential lots, depending on the lot configuration, which will be determined by the purchaser.
“Whatever developer purchased it would determine if they wanted bigger lots or smaller lots,” Mayor Robert Snow explained.
The lot was assessed at $438K by Wainwright Assessment Group Ltd.
“The Economic Development Committee considered both the immediate financial impact and the longer-term benefits of increasing housing supply, supporting population growth and generating ongoing municipal tax revenue from up to 10 new homes,” Lavoie said.
She said the committee concluded that enabling the development of the land would have greater long-term value, as they recommended setting the price of the lot at $500K.
According to administration, serving costs on the parcel would be $536K.
Coun. Bruce MacDuff spoke on behalf of the committee and how they arrived at the sale price.
“The land needs to be serviced before it can be ready for development and we don’t have anything in the ground yet,” he said. “We arrived at $500K because if someone came in and offered us a little bit less, it’s easier to go down, hopefully we can get the $536K water and sewer put in for a little less.”
Snow said once the development is complete, the town would be able to start collecting tax revenue on the properties.
“Our hope with $500K, it’s more appealing to a developer and the reality is, once we get houses built on there, our tax revenue starts to return some of that remaining amount,” he said.
Council voted in favour of establishing the sale price of the property at $500K, as recommended by the economic development committee.
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