BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1019 Report

The Town of Hudson is close to reaching a deal to purchase Sandy Beach, said Mayor Chloe Hutchison on Monday, adding she is hoping to schedule a public meeting in the next few weeks to outline the structure of a financing plan, including when a borrowing bylaw would be put to council.

“There could be a public information meeting before the end of the month if all goes well,” Hutchison said in an interview after Monday’s regular town council meeting, but cautioned negotiations are still ongoing with Nicanco Holdings, the owner of the forested land along the shores of the Lake of Two Mountains, and no final agreement has been reached.

The amount the town has put forward as a bid to purchase the land has not been made public.

Hutchison, however, is optimistic an agreement in principle could be reached in the coming days “if all goes well.”

Councillor Mark Gray echoed the sentiment.

“We’re optimistic,” Gray said Monday evening, referring to a possible deal in the coming days.

When asked to comment, councillor Reid Thompson said simply to watch the town’s website for an announcement of a public meeting.

Hutchison said the public meeting would “explain the numbers” of an agreement in principle, including the structure of how it would be financed, amounts that would be generated through a borrowing bylaw, sums attributed from the town’s accumulated surplus, capital pledged through a fundraising campaign and any possible grants to come from other sources.

Residents would then be given the opportunity to express their support or opposition through a register process that would be triggered when council approves a borrowing bylaw. If enough signatures are collected on the register to block the bylaw — a number Hutchison said would be approximately 10 per cent of eligible residents — the bylaw would be put to a town-wide referendum for approval.

The register could be held before the Nov. 2 municipal election, Hutchison said. But if enough opposition is expressed and the bylaw is put to a referendum, that step would have to be scheduled after the election.

That timeline would mean the ultimate decision to hold a referendum or drop the borrowing bylaw would be a left to a new council.

Members of the current council this week will be reviewing a report prepared by financial consultant Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton that provides an analysis of the impact a proposed deal would have on taxation.

Negotiations to buy the waterfront land surrounding Sandy Beach began in earnest in February, when Hudson council put an offer on the table to buy the tract of land that has been the focus of a growing grassroots campaign to preserve the natural space from development.

The offer came after the town commissioned two reports at a combined cost of $52,500 to determine the market value and a cost-benefit analysis of the proposed development plan for the site, which included potential infrastructure and service costs to the town.

The reports were ordered after Nicanco representatives asked the town if it would be interested in discussing a possible deal, marking the first time in recent years it had considered the option of a sale to the municipality.