The Municipality of North Cowichan is looking to identify and catalogue all of its surplus land.
At its meeting on March 5, council directed staff to write a report on municipal lands that are surplus to the needs of the municipality, along with their estimated market values, potential uses, and recommendations and report back to council at a future date.
The motion for the report was made by Coun. Mike Caljouw who said its intent is to identify properties that North Cowichan doesn’t need that can be sold.
He said the initiative demonstrates council’s commitment to maximizing the value of municipal assets through the sale of some its unneeded lands.
“This will create an opportunity to generate revenue which will allow the municipality to strategically acquire land that is essential for our community development, infrastructure projects and other municipal services,” he said.
The idea of cataloguing North Cowichan’s surplus lands and possibly selling some of them was raised during budget discussions at a meeting on Feb. 11.
With the municipality facing a tough budget year, Coun. Bruce Findlay suggested that some of the surplus lands could be sold to help deal with North Cowichan’s financial pressures and lower tax increases.
But Teri Vetter, North Cowichan's director of financial services, told council at the meeting on March 5 that the community charter states that funds raised through the sale of surplus lands can only be used to pay down debt on any municipal lands on which money is still owed, or used to buy buy more land that is required for other municipal purposes, pointing out that it can’t be used to offset tax revenues.
However, council unanimously decided that having staff prepare a report on surplus lands would be a worthwhile exercise and could help council in decision-making in the future.
Findlay said he doesn’t believe any member of council wants to sell off all North Cowichan’s surplus properties right away.
Coun. Chris Istace said the report will allow council to have a good look at what surplus lands North Cowichan owns and help educate council members as to what their status is.
“But there are some reasons why it’s important to sit on stuff for up to 50 years,” he said.
Mayor Rob Douglas said the idea is not just to possibly sell off surplus lands, but to raise revenue for other strategic land acquisitions that fit in council’s priorities, which he thinks is a great idea.
But he asked staff if the public will be involved in the decision-making process.
CAO Ted Swabey said that any disposal of municipal land requires that a notification be placed in the local newspaper and the public can comment on it.
“We can look at greater public input if that’s council’s desire,” he said.
