The Town of Minto will service two more blocks of residential lots on public land in this village and put them up for sale to the highest bidder.
At the May 4 meeting, the town accepted the quotation of Moorefield Excavation for $371,865 to service two blocks between Allan Street and Nelson Street (Blocks C and D of the project).
Though the town has budgeted $310,000 to complete Block C, CAO Bill white noted in a report that additional funds needed to cover the project cost will be generated from land sales.
“Having the entire street serviced decreases the time the road is under construction, which is of interest to existing and new homeowners,” explained White.
“The town sold the most recent lot on Ann Street for $28,000 and given interest in the property will have sufficient revenue from land sales to fund the added cost.”
In January of 2013 the town paid $440,000 to purchase all the former CN Rail line property in Clifford (including Lots 294 to 327 on Ann Street); the line north of the Ann Street lots to West Heritage Street and the line from the south end of Clifford to Minto’s 13th Line.
The land was acquired as part of the settlement of a lawsuit against the town by a developer. At the time, council agreed to keep enough land to develop a trail system and sell some lots over time to offset the land acquisition.
All lots in Blocks A, B and E have been sold and White’s report indicates the eventual sale of all buildable lots should amount to over $645,000 for the town, including two in-fill lots sold in 2015 for fourplex development in Block A, and the 14 lots sold or under offer to date.
“Of course, that doesn’t cover the servicing work to any great degree, but remember we had to do servicing work anyway on that road because of those lots that had water service in behind and need to replace the ultra-rib pipe,” White told council
“I know when we looked at that $440,000 we were a little bit worried about that and we thought we might sell a lot or two (per year) over the next 20 (years). It’s certainly surpassed any expectation we had at that time.
“If you drive down the roadway now you can see quite a lot of activity down there.”
The lots in Blocks C and D will be offered for sale through a bid process, with a minimum bid of $28,000.
A form for submitting sealed bids will be circulated to those who have shown interest in the Ann Street lots. Council would receive a report on bids submitted and give direction on which bids to consider for agreement of purchase and sale.
Bids will close on Block C lots on June 9 and on Block D on Sept. 8. Purchasers will be required to start construction within a specified time frame.
The sale of Ann Street lots, plus the former Clifford baseball field, and two in-fill lots for housing across from Block A have resulted in $825,000 in actual or pending sales revenue to the town (less legal and survey costs)and should result in a total of 46 new residences by the time all lots are filled, White told council.
