The president of a development company has sent an open letter to the District of Hope’s council, sharing his displeasure of the land transaction at 455 Coquihalla St, which he bid on but did not get.
Steve Harvey, of Echo Developments Ltd., made three arguments. He said he put in an offer higher than the listing price of $350,000, and yet the District eventually got it. Furthermore, he argued that municipalities should not compete with private developers and said he is considering halting all business in town.
On July 27, council passed a motion to allocate up to $320,000 for the purchase, in addition to a deposit. The latter figure is unknown because land items are handled in camera. The land was owned by Imperial Oil.
“There was something going on than just an open offer on the deal. I can’t see Imperial Oil taking less money,” said Harvey.
Harvey said he has consulted with his lawyer and will file a Freedom of Information request to see the contract to understand the details of the deal.
He further said that the District should not be involved in land developments.
“They’re using my tax dollars to compete against me, and I don’t like that in the least,” said Harvey.
Coun. Bob Erickson, a developer himself, said he understands what Harvey is saying, and said the District has discussed that in detail. He disagrees with Harvey’s assertion.
“If we can make money on it, why not?” said Erickson. “The District needs money really badly.”
Erickson explained that the District has to undertake some work on the property before it can be resold, such as rezoning it. He added that Imperial Oil wanted to sell the property to the District.
“If he put a bigger price in, [then] obviously, they wanted to sell it to the town,” said Erickson. “Steve Harvey might have put in an offer of $350,000 and we put the offer of $350,000 and they opted to sell it to the town.
“We just put the offer in, and we got the offer.”
Mayor Wilfried Vicktor further defended the decision, saying that he wants to run the District in a “business-like way.” Vicktor pointed out the benefits of this development, in that it allows the Community Garden some time to decide on where they want to move to and also, because the District will sell the land at a profit, taxpayers will benefit.
“Anytime we raise taxes, say one per cent, it’s only $71,000 extra into the budget,” said Vicktor. “We’re planning on subdividing, potentially rezoning, reselling the property. That will be a profit to the taxpayers — that’s not going to into council’s pockets privately.”
Vicktor said the District dealt directly with Imperial Oil through their realtor.
“It was explained what we wanted to do with it and I guess the company saw an inherent benefit to what we were going to do with it, so they gave us a good deal,” said Vicktor. “They were free to sell it to anyone else.”
On the Community Garden, Vicktor explained that if a private developer bought it, they could evict them immediately. The District has identified an alternative location for them and by the time they moved, the growing season would be over, Vicktor said.
Harvey said as a result of this, he has doubts about whether he will continue investing within the District.
“We’ve been investing in this community for a long time, we’ve been building a lot of houses,” said Harvey. “We actually have a deal in the works that we were going to build some apartment buildings … but I’m having second thoughts about doing anything in the community.”
The mayor sees it otherwise.
“I would say Mr. Harvey should be very happy that we’re taking an entrepreneurial approach,” said Vicktor. “I think threatening to withdraw activities from Hope when Hope is as vibrant as it has ever been, probably more vibrant than it’s ever been, I don’t really see where it would be productive for him.”
According to Harvey, 455 Coquihalla St. is a single plot of land, and the Community Garden is actually on Imperial Oil land because they allowed them to do so. Imperial Oil used to use that land for an Esso bulk plant.
Vicktor said plans for the land “have yet to be decided, but we did get it at a price that was reasonable enough that repurposing it will, in all likelihood garner a fair profit.” Vicktor did point to the Integrated Official Community Plan which highlighted the “a chronic housing shortage,” which led council to want to be able to control development on that block.
“Although I respect diversity of opinions on this, the majority of taxpayers are extremely happy that we did this, because ultimately they’ll be the winners here,” said Vicktor.