Editorial: South Dundas should control its destiny

Earlier this month, South Dundas council began to look at surplus property that the municipality owns for potential asset sales. This examination began in a committee of the whole meeting, and continued in a regular meeting with six municipal properties being declared surplus for sale. More properties will be offered soon as well.

The properties available include industrial land in Iroquois, residential land between Iroquois and Morrisburg, and some parcels of land for agriculture use that neighbouring farms could use. With exception to the land on Coyle Drive, these all are pretty innocuous land sales. Withheld in this round of sales of land adjacent to Matilda Hall, beside County Road 2 west of Iroquois, and a portion of Dundela Park. There are nearly two-dozen more properties that were identified by staff that will be considered for sale at a later time.

Selling surplus property makes sense. Excess municipal property is a financial drain on the taxpayer. Even if the property is undeveloped, there is a cost for South Dundas owning and holding on to it – some of that cost is in lost revenue as no property taxes are collected.

In selling surplus property however, there should be a plan and not just haphazard sales. A plan is especially needed when it comes to residential and industrial land sales. Despite the lack of a completed strategic plan for South Dundas, there are housing and economic development goals that should be achieved. South Dundas needs more job creation and business investment. According to numbers from SDG Counties, this municipality is projected to lose jobs while growing as a residential community in the next 15 years.

South Dundas also needs housing, a lot of it. New developments are set to begin, but those are not enough. Those developments also do not necessarily address affordability. South Dundas could just sell off properties willy-nilly, or those sales can be targeted towards certain goals. For example, the 7.45 acre parcel off Coyle Drive could be developed into a couple single family homes. Or if the buyer builds multiple semi-detached homes, the land could be sold at a lower rate. Similarly, selling portions of land on the edges of parks to create higher density in-fill housing would address housing goals. Leveraging land sales to achieve certain municipal goals is a good way of both eliminate the excess properties, and address some of the housing needs.

The federal government is already providing some leadership on this front, leveraging its surplus properties to promote building more housing. Ontario does not, but with 5,444 acres of provincially-owned in South Dundas alone, there are many places to start.

With the right goals set from the outset for its surplus properties, South Dundas can – and should – control its own destiny.

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