GRCA has no plans to sell land without making it public first

The province mandated conservation authorities do a land inventory before the end of 2024, through it about seven parcels of land have been identified within the Waterloo Region watershed that could be useful for housing.

The Grand River Conservation Authority (GRCA) is holding a board meeting on Friday where the land inventory will be a topic discussed. The public can watch that meeting, which starts at 9:30 a.m. through its website.

The report going to the board states that one requirement from the province of the land inventory was to determine if a parcel of land is suitable for housing.

“This process identified 30 GRCA-owned properties currently zoned for residential use (excluding easements in favour of GRCA). Of these, seven parcels were deemed to have potential for housing development, and two parcels will require more in-depth analysis,” the report reads.

“There is no regulatory requirement for the land inventory to undergo public consultation or be made publicly available.”

The report did not mention where these parcels of land were located.

Mayor of North Dumfries, Sue Foxton, sits on the local conservation authority board and said they have no plans to sell the land. Foxton was on The Mike Farwell Show on June 27 to discuss the land inventory the GRCA documented.

“For generations people have been giving them pieces of land. We’ve got a small accumulation of land that most of it is quite useless,” said Foxton. “Of the seven, several of those are going to be looked at in a deeper dive to make sure they aren’t impacted by the waterways and if they are, then we will maintain them and put them back into our normal land holdings.”

If the board decides to put any of the parcels of land up for sale, then the public would be made aware through a consultation process.

“We would have public meetings and consultations, but we don’t want to open that ‘ball of wax’ because we’d have developers all over us, which we don’t have the time or patience to deal with, so I don’t see that as a potential issue if it happens.”

Foxton added if the land is no where near water, is idle and could be used for infrastructure development then the first thing the GRCA would do is go public.

“We’re just doing our due diligence of keeping a land registry and making sure we meet the mandate of the GRCA.”

Foxton said there is a demand for housing in the region currently but wants to make sure the process is done properly, not fast, if these parcels of land are to be sold.

The report going to the GRCA board was approved by GRCA’s chief administrative officer, Samantha Lawson.

In a statement to CityNews 570, James Clark the senior marketing and communications advisor for GRCA said “the land inventory is just as it sounds.”

“Just an inventory of all parcels of land owned and controlled by the GRCA. There are no recommendations for selling or disposing of lands being considered at this time.”

If that changes after the board meeting then a process would start to declare the lands surplus and begin public consultation processes.