Wasaga officials explore land acquisition for proposed festival square
Wasaga Beach officials have opened discussions with several landowners to start the process of consolidating ownership of the future public square site on the beachfront.
At the Aug. 15 public information session to present the first iterations of Fram Building Group’s design for the town square and Beach Area 2 site, the town’s director of economic development and tourism, Andrew McNeill, said he, the municipality’s clerk and the chief administrative officer, had been given delegated authority to begin the negotiation process with landowners who own property within the area designated as Festival Square.
While it was to be a centrepiece of the town’s plans for the downtown, creation of the square has been put off to a future phase because of land ownership issues.
The letter of intent signed with Fram in July specifies Fram and the town “work together to prepare a strategic plan for the location, acquisition, planning, development and construction of the festival square facility.”
Fram would have the first right to make an offer for the Festival Square land as a second phase of the downtown development.
In an interview with Simcoe.com, McNeill stated municipal staff met with landowners to “understand what a potential win-win scenario could look like for the town to potentially negotiate the acquisition of land — or alternate arrangements to allow development to proceed that could include some form of amicable land swap.”
McNeill said the staff direction from council includes a “framework that they must negotiate within and cannot exceed.
“The town and Fram both believe that the development of Festival Square is a priority,” he wrote. “The current need is to consolidate land ownership so that redevelopment can proceed.”
McNeill stated land acquisition costs would be recovered through the redevelopment process.
In 2015, the municipality paid $13.6 million for 28 commercial properties along Beach Drive; the purchase was made through the combination of a mortgage through TD Canada Trust and a loan through Infrastructure Ontario.
In December, 2017, the town added to its beachfront holdings with the purchase of a quarter-acre property between the Playland Square parking lot and Spruce Street for $749,000. The purchase was paid for through reserves.