City View looks to special levy to help buy heritage property for park

A community group is racing against the clock to raise money that would help pay for a two-acre property it wants to see turned into a city park.

More than 70 residents of the City View neighbourhood in College ward attended a public meeting on Thursday to discuss the issue. They were clearly frustrated with the city's policy not to buy land for parks, even in communities where there isn't enough greenspace.

But most in attendance appeared ready to pay a $5 a month — or more — special levy to help purchase the recently designated heritage home at 21 Withrow Ave., an 1840s stone house that once belonged to a Confederation poet and is currently listed for sale with an asking price of $2.3 million.

"I think the outcome was positive," said Joan Clark, president of the City View Community Association, about the meeting, where people were given short surveys about whether they were in favour of the levy.

"People are saying, 'We'll give a $10 a month levy,'" said Clark. "I mean, we want a park. So we're not giving up."

But getting the city, or any level of government, to buy the property — let alone pay to operate it as a public park — is a long shot.

City View is bordered by Baseline Road, Meadowlands Drive, Clyde Avenue and Woodroffe Avenue, and includes about 1,200 homes. College ward Coun. Rick Chiarelli, who represents the area and attended the meeting, said he's willing to bring the idea to council, provided he and the community association have written support from at least half the homeowners in City View.

And the levy, at $5 a month per home for 10 years, would only raise $720,000, or one-third of the asking price. The community would then have to convince the city, perhaps with grants from the provincial and federal levels of government, to buy the rest.

'A bit of a long shot'

That's a major hurdle, as the city does not buy land to turn into parks.

Newer subdivisions, especially outside the Greenbelt, are charged a "parks development fee" that is passed onto the homebuyer. But many older neighbourhoods in the inner city are short on parkland because they were established before the municipality had guidelines on how much greenspace is required per capita. There's also just not that much undeveloped land available for parks in some communities inside the Greenbelt.

"Basically, it's going to be a bit of a long shot to make it happen, but the only chance of it happening is if they have this money commitment and they put together a rock-solid business case," said Chiarelli after the meeting.

He suggested the community raise at least some of the money for the property — "The more, the better," he said — to show the city residents had a measurable stake in the project that would essentially be a major exception to city policy.

"I'm trying to manage expectations here because this would be a groundbreaking move by council," he said. "On the other hand, we have a lot of existing communities that at some point are going to start wanting modernization. And we might want to turn our attention to that."

Large property could be development opportunity

However, time is of the essence.

"A buyer could come in tomorrow and they have to preserve the house but they could redevelop or apply to the city to put a development in there and the land is gone forever," said Clark. "So that greenspace is gone."

The large property could be a development opportunity for someone. The online sale notice for the house promises a "potential for 14 lots."

Council designated the outside of the one-and-a-half storey home at 21 Withrow a heritage building in May, based on its cultural value as an early home that helped to establish the former Nepean Township, and for its association with poet William Wilfred Campbell, who lived there for three years in the early 20th century and christened the property Kilmorie in a poem.

The home itself has design value as an example of the type of limestone house built in that era. It was built between 1840 and 1850 for William Scott, a farmer who had immigrated here from Ireland.

The heritage designation was not welcomed by the current owners — the three adult children of Dr. J. David Roger, who lived at 21 Withrow for 65 years until his death in June 2015. They told the built-heritage subcommittee earlier this year the designation would reduce the value of their property. Even before the designation was approved, the owners said a potential bid had been lowered by $500,000.