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2 GeorgetownActon Wednesday Jan It 1984 Don t close land purchase Ccetlnaed from page 1 which would cost million and every taxpayer a year on the average house Hedalsourgedciuzensnotto trust coun cillors said the building wouldn t cost that much or be built now had suggested the municipal com would cost people a lot of money to fulfill councillors dreams Also suggested council had no business risking Town funds getting into the development business There was applause from the tax payers in the audience to s preamble Councillor Phil Carney asked who should the need for more space be proven to and replied the building Itee council and the public Carney questioned where the mill on figure came from and Elliott explained from lhe4 lion stated in the space needs study done for the Town with inflation and furnishings added on He said the citizens arithmetic might be sun pie but it was more accurate than what the Town been using This was greeted with a Tbe elegance and hand crafted furniture from our Collection piece with painstaking care by our own skilled craftsmen Your selection be hand finished to match that special family heir loom Solid Oak Pine Cherry and Walnutatlt3bet for less We guarantee I The Another region why ft the tatActonf JANUARY CLEARANCE SALE NOW IS THE TIME TO PURCHASE THAT NEW PIECE OF FURNITURE YOU HAVE BEEN WANTING THE SAVINGS ARE FANTASTIC LISTED BELOW ARE JUST A FEW OF THE SAVINGS AVAILABLE 5 Drawer Chest D Bookcase 64 x20 95 SofaBed Bookcases 688 PLUS MANY MANY MORE IN STORE BARGAINS STORE HOURS 10am9pm CASH CHEQUE FINANCING HILLS FURNITURE and APPLIANCES 362 QUEEN STREET EAST HWV NO 7 ACTON 853211 great burst of applause from the asked what nsk there was in what council was doing and asked what will happen if the province says the Town doesn t have enough water for Georgetown growth or if McLaughlin developments says it has the right to develop its Georgetown lands first He asked if something goes wrong how the Town will get its back Carney said the Town has an agreement to purchase tbe land and warned the owner could sue if the Town t close the deal Page replied if it turns out the council didn have the power to buy the land in the first place no court would force It to close the deal Carney noted he has made a proposal to council for low cost housing on the property is clearly allowed under the Municipal Act Former mayor Peter said after wards the Town investigated all the legalities surrounding its purchase of Stevens land and noted apartments were built In on excess land that municipality bought He suggested there might be a need for Ontario Municipal Board approval if tbe Town was funds for acquisition but it was be ing paidfor from an existing reserve fund Peel regional chairman Frank Bean was at the meeting and said afterwards many precedents have been set for tbe type of ac tion council was planning with this pur chase He recalled Brampton bought more land than it needed once from the province If this action was against the Municipal Act then why would the province be the vendor Purchase legal Continued from page I development but we would also suggest that there is clearly no authority to service w water and sewers and develop this land Upon our examination of the reports and valuations which have been provided to us we arc somewhat troubled and have dlffi culty a power aright or an author ity for the Town to purchase the Stevens property If the Town was purchasing land only to be used by the municipality for a municipal complex or park land we would not be raising these particular points Al though we may still object or question the purchase and the reasons why the Council decided as ft did our concerns would be We now look and we ask where the authority comes from for a municipal corporation to purchase land for develop purposes We would suggest that there is no authority there is no power We would suggest that therefore that the bylaws authorizing the purchase ultra vires On a clear wording of the Municipal Act such by laws appear to be beyond the power of this mimic pal corporation Their report went on to note the funds for the Stevens land are coming from a reserve fund and the money came from lot levies and severance fees and a small part was from the sale of excess Town land No funds were put in the fund in and per cent of the money came from Georgetown per cent from Esqueslng and nine per cent from The Town first bylaw establishing the reserve fund stated it was to finance ex panslon on Trafalgar Rd while a revised bylaw placed the money in an account for an adm building The citizens group noted there Is a considerable body of law in the courts and at the Ontario Municipal Board indicating lot levies are to be imposed only where and to the extent that lot levies arc necessary lo cover the additional cost to the municipality which Is created by the subdivision Lot levies t another form of taxation the report notes However lot levies appear to have been used for the building up of the municipal complex reserve fund the brief stated Who then paid for the addi load created by these subdivisions Did he residents of the new lots get the vices which they paid for The Town should not be land banking It was admitted at council In September that there Is little evidence as to what we need for a new administration building and no one knows how this project can be financed or when it could be started Three appraisalsdone three different prices Hal ton Hills had three property ap praisals done on the Stevens land and according to the citizens group probing the purchase there were three different values determined only two proceeded on the same basis and none of the projected uses were the same as those suggested by the council building committee Halton Hills has been looking at the new administration building question for years and at one time Trafalgar Rd was the favored site The building committee In July was tolnvesugatethenecdforabuildlng as well as possible sites The citizens group it was assuming no possible sites were excluded but Trafalgar wasn considered in the committee report By June they reported the Stevens site had emerged as the only site possible and various studies and reports were pre sented to council and its consultant Long more Developments The Stephen Saxe ap praisal of August was based on 7 acres of the Stevens land being used for the complex acres for family nous ing 12 acres for 24 single family homes and link homes and open space or park land of 8 acres had come up with a draft plan for the development dated August 3 The citizens group asked how in the sum of 1982 council had determined ft need ed seven acres for its building How do we know what is needed in August Also as far back as then it was clear a large part of the site was to be purchased but not used by the municipality only 24 per cent of the land would be for the building per cent unusable and as much as per cent of the site used for homes At that time pegged the value of the land based on the municipality plans for its development at However Saxes report envisioned single family homes and link homes not homes and link units as suggested in the other municipal reports But the land is not fully serviced and the building committee we understand recognized that the valuation was pretty useless based on a given state of facts which t true In a report last year Saxe corrected the errors in the terms of reference he was given This report showed the value of the land at in and in A third appraisal by Humphries McCaw of Hamilton valued the property at the price the Town paid The citizens group suggested this appraisal was valueless since it was based on the creation of build ing lots and lota t mentioned In the building committee reports Saxe ap praisals The building committee envision individual lots After meeting with Saxe the committee learned in his valuations he discounted cash flow for both revenue and expenses and this cash flow approach Is necessary to determine true costs He similarly notes that the developer will have to make a pro fit estimated at per cent on the sale of tbe lots The report of he building commit tee ignores both tbe discounted cash flow items and the developer profit margin on thelots tial property at while tbe building committee report shows a surplus of That a big difference We have difficulty reading the two valuations of and the one of HumpbriesMcCaw and justifying tbe pur chase price The only valuations which are useful at Saxe and they show that the land is worth in 1BB2 and iO 1KB How do we get Their brief noted that a interest purchaser like might nave to pay market value plus premium But with the end use being assumed with a purchaser and tbe valuations based on we cannot see why an add tlonal premium above highest and best use is Justifiable The Humphries McCaw report proceeded on the false assumption of lots when the building committee only envisioned Fur ther the building committee suggested lots would sell for each Yet the draft plan of subdivision prepared by Longmore and used by Saxe In his report calls for single family lots selling for 500 each and the link homes for There a difference of about between figures shown on the report of the building committee and any valuation used by Saxe Institutional land uses are things like municipal complexes schools and ches but the institutional portion of the lands were valued at industrial land prices by the citizens report notes told the group the Stevens land as an in use could not be adequately compared with other properties because there are few comparable properties The use of Industrial values for institutional land he noted waslargelyarbltrary We would suggest that one property thy of consideration is the Watch tower Bible Society property Even conceding that the Stevens site has more potential than that property there is a wide discrepancy In valuations A acre portion of that pro perty sold for per acre and a acre portion sold for 16 per acre But the institutional portions of the Stevens estate have been valued at 55 and per acre respectively There is a large in price per acre We ask if that is justifiable Praise for staff on handling snow Town staff has been doing a good job handling all this snow that been dumped on Hills this year some councillors observed Monday night Councillor Marilyn said she j wanted to compliment staff on the good job thats been done adding the December J storms depleted the Town budget I severely Councillor Ross Knechtel agreed with her praise of the staff Mayor Russ Miller said be s been hearing good remarks the last few days after the small disaster that hit the Town In December Things were pretty bad In Halton Hills he said during the period when the storms were raging Peace Camp hearing now on January 18 The date for the International Peace Camp IPC appeal hearing over rejection of its proposal to develop a major ethnic culturalrecreation centre hat been changed Niagara Escarpment Commission NEC member Dave Whiting announced this week me date for the hearing has been changed to next Wednesday January IB at MJllon Town Hall at 10 pun The hearing was scheduled for yesterday Tuesday according to the notice tent to Halton Hfflt The NEC rejected the plans to develop the old Twin Lakes property south of Speytlde in November after receiving strong opposition to proposal from Halton Hull and Milton regions Environmental and Ecological Adlnory Committee Ministry of Natural Reaourctf Region Health Department and Region Conservation Authority alto ex In their comment