The purchase of the 223-acre parcel on Ferry Road, near Fitzroy Harbour, was approved unanimously by councillors on Wednesday.
Ottawa city council unanimously approved a motion to buy a 223-acre parcel of waterfront land for conservation purposes, but was divided on whether to sell a portion of the land for private development.
The parcel, located at 5689 Ferry Rd. near Fitzroy Harbour, will cost the City of Ottawa $1.95 million.
Wednesday’s vote came after council voted in January to defer the acquisition decision until the end of March. At the time, some councillors thought the land was too expensive, while others called it a bargain.
City staff have been eyeing the land for decades. Previously, administration said acquiring the land represented a rare opportunity to purchase an “ecologically significant” property that included mature forests, meadows, wetlands and a cabin constructed in 1835. Administrators also said the parcel may potentially be an Indigenous archeological site.
“We’re looking to balance the need and desire to purchase lands in the rural area to satisfy our environmental goals, and at the same time, we’re looking at ensuring that the fiscal side of this equation is looked after, and I think we have that. I’m hoping that council today will vote unanimously to purchase the property, because we make the plan better,” Rideau-Jock Coun. David Brown said at Wednesday’s council meeting.
Councillors also unanimously approved a clause to direct city staff to explore the possibility of applying for a conservation easement to ensure natural areas were free from development. They also approved a clause directing city staff to pursue a management agreement or land transfer “at a nominal price” to reduce the city’s long-term operating costs on the parcel.
Evening Update
Riverside South-Findlay Creek Coun. Steve Desroches said the acquisition would be a good first step to see if other lands could be turned over to conservation authorities.
“This might be a really good model to see if there’s some other lands that we should be turning over to conservation authorities because they do things like put in, you know, bird boxes and different habitat things. We don’t have a program for that here. The city’s position is just don’t touch it, and that’s fine, but I think that the residents do appreciate when there’s some active conservation efforts there that align with our environmental objectives,” Desroches said.
But councillors were divided on whether city staff should proceed with severance applications for the Ferry Road property to establish two separate secondary lots for private sales. City administration told council on Wednesday that any revenue generated from the sale of the lots — which would be around two acres each — would be directed to a special account to fund future conservation efforts on the farmland. Management partners will be able to access those funds once the land is transferred.
It would cost the city $80,000 “on the high end” to sever, market and sell the lots, staff said.
Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Divine raised concerns about negative ecological impacts if the lots were severed and sold.
Debbie Stewart, the city’s general manager of strategic initiatives, said the secondary lots would not be located on ecologically sensitive areas. A land survey and an environmental impact assessment survey would be conducted before the lots were severed.
“We would be looking at (severing the lands) that have the lowest value, likely fronting Ferry Road itself, but that work needs to be undertaken to determine the lands that are best suited for that purpose, bearing in mind the direction that council is providing through this motion, if it’s adopted,” Stewart said at Wednesday’s council meeting.
Divine also voice concern about the demand for those two lots and whether the city would be able to sell them.
“So, if I understand it correctly, we would be pursuing the sale, and so for a while the city would be acting as as landlords, if not realtors, for those two small separate lots. We already have heard that there’s no anticipated market for those and so I don’t know, theoretically, how long the city might be acting as a landlord-realtor for those two properties. I don’t know if there are costs for the city to act in that manner,” he said.
Capital Coun. Shawn Menard raised similar concerns.
“I think it’s just strange that we’re here because the rhetoric at the time was that these lands would be protected in perpetuity by not buying them, that they were just going to be protected by the existing zoning. And now we’re saying, ‘Yeah, buy them, but then sever off and develop a portion of them.’ It just … it’s not making sense to me,” he said.
West Carleton-March Coun. Clarke Kelly countered Divine’s claims, saying there was a demand for homes in the area. The costs to build a home in the rural area would be the responsibility of the homeowner and not the city, he said.
“If you think back to the pandemic and the great desire for people to leave the suburbs and the urban area to come and enjoy life in rural Ottawa, the demand was huge. It’s still there, of course, not as heavy as it was during the pandemic,” Kelly said.
In the end, council voted 19-5 to proceed with the land-severance applications. Menard and councillors Marty Carr, Jeff Leiper, Rawlson King and Jessica Bradley voted against.
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