BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The town of Hudson is preparing to negotiate some sort of deal with the owners of Sandy Beach to determine how the waterfront area can be spared from development, but it will come down to price – and how much of that price taxpayers are willing to shoulder, says Hudson Mayor Chloe Hutchison.

This spring representatives of Nicanco Holdings, which own the wooded tract of land along the shores of the Lake of Two Mountains, asked the town if it would be interested in discussing a possible deal, Hutchison said, marking the first time in recent years the landowners would consider the option.

“There is an opening on their part,” Hutchison said in an interview with The 1019 Report this week.

This led to about five meetings involving members of council and others to hash out a formal response from the town. That response, which was outlined in a statement, was delivered to Nicanco a week ago, Hutchison said Monday. She declined to share the substance of the message.

The meetings to draft the response involved all members of council, the town’s director-general, its special projects co-ordinator and the town’s lawyers.

“The message coming from council is to save all of it,” Hutchison said, referring to the entire tract of wooded wetland that traces the shore of the lake. But she cast doubt on whether that option will be possible.

“We won’t get away without paying some profitability,” Hutchison said, referring to what the developer will be seeking in terms of value for its land.

To prepare for possible negotiations, council next week will hold a special meeting. Four items have been outlined on the agenda of that meeting, including two that will deal with Sandy Beach. One item, Hutchison said, would be to approve a contract to assess the market value of the land owned by Nicanco and an adjacent 1.9-acre lot located at 2 Royalview Street that has recently been listed for sale with an asking price of $1.5 million.

A second contract set to be issued is to assess the cost to the town if the proposed development Nicanco has put forward to build about 200 housing units in the area goes through. This would include the financial impact of everything from infrastructure to services weighed against the possible tax revenue generated from the construction of new residential dwellings. The aim is to inform council and taxpayers in clear, calculated terms the positive or negative fiscal impact of development to the town, she said.

The town is planning to issue two additional contracts at a later date to support its talks with Nicanco, Hutchison said.

In the meantime, several other factors could affect the value of the land, including the awaited outcome of the legal challenge to the Quebec Environment minister’s decision to revoke Nicanco’s permit to backfill part of the area around Sandy Beach that has stalled its original 214-unit housing development project to move forward.

If the ministerial revocation of the permit stands, it would only limit development in a small section of the site, and Nicanco could still develop within a wide tract of the area. To that end, the developer has already drafted plans for an amended version of its building plan, but it has not yet been approved.

Also, the provincial Environment Ministry is currently updating its new flood plain maps. Depending on the outcome of this process, which is now undergoing consultations, the area along the waterfront that would be permitted for development could change dramatically. The new flood maps are only expected to be publicly unveiled some time next year.

Ultimately, Hutchison said, it will come down to price.

“We can consider putting in a third of something,” she said, explaining the remainder of any final price would have to come from other sources. Convincing taxpayers to go along with such a plan, however, is not a given in her estimation.

And that is where a grassroots group that held a public meeting last month could come into play.

The meeting, organized by a small group of citizens who support saving Sandy Beach from development, invited the public to discuss what was framed as “a viable alternative solution to residential construction” surrounding the beach site. About 100 people showed up June 21. Among the topics raised at the gathering was the development of what one organizer called “a financial vehicle” to attract and raise funds to support the purchase of the popular waterfront natural space.

“The enthusiasm from the meeting has been phenomenal,” said Hudson resident Cam Gentile, one of the organizers of the meeting. “There is tremendous support.”

About 25 people have stepped forward following the meeting, Gentile said, to help the group organize its efforts. This expanding group has held a series of meetings in the past weeks.

The objective, Gentile said to build awareness of the group’s effort and create a vehicle to collect what he described as “a significant amount of funds” to help buy Sandy Beach.