Domenico Zito

By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

Kirkland City Councillor Domenico Zito says that he is disappointed following the vote held at the most recent public council meeting concerning the green space on the North West corner of the Trans Canada Highway and St-Charles Boulevard.

The lot located in District 4 measuring approximately 170,500 sq ft could have been picked up by the City of Kirkland to benefit the population, according to Zito. “This is one of the few prime spots left where we could have preserved a space to benefit residents. It could have been a park, a skating rink, a pool or library,” Zito told The Suburban.

In the 4 versus 4 councillor vote, Kirkland Mayor Michel Gibson broke the tie voting not-in-favour of repurchasing the land. The expiry date on the opportunity was August 1, therefore no further discussions will take place on the possibility, but some councillors feel that it was a missed opportunity.

The Suburban reached out to the Mayor to explain his reason for voting against the proposed purchase. “It is not fiscally responsible to purchase land that will generate a loss of revenue while it has no established purpose,” Gibson said.

The land previously belonged to the city and was sold to a private company that built three industrial buildings, leaving a vacant development portion that was up for grabs. At the time of the sale, a clause was placed for repurchase at the price that it was sold. The clause was put in place as discussions for a recreation centre were taking place with consideration of five potential placements.

Council voted unanimously that it would not be the most suitable as traffic flow would have been a major issue. Four councillors however, wanted to hang onto it for potential future uses. According to Gibson, the funds would be much better used towards building the recreation centre. “We have existing land owned by us. Why spend $9 million to keep this land for a speculative future while we have two other spots that we can spend that money on in actually building the centre?”