The prospect of expanding their properties have residents of Winterbourne and Breslau looking to Woolwich to make available a pair of unused road allowances.
In Winterbourne, two residents of Allan Street would like to buy some property from the township in the form of an unopened roadway, Stock Street. In Breslau, the owner of a property on Woolwich Street North wants some of the extra road allowance adjacent to his land.
Receptive to the idea, the township hosted a pair of public planning meetings in council chambers Tuesday night, getting the process rolling.
In order to sell to the residents, the township has to follow a procedure that would see the land declared surplus, a market price determined and then conveyed to the adjacent parcels.
The Winterbourne site involves land that was retained by the township for a possible new road – Stock Street – that is no longer in the cards. Altogether, the land is a strip about 18 metres wide and 229 metres in length between Peel Street and Mill Run Lane, abutting several properties in the village.
The process was initiated by the two property owners who abut the stretch north of Allan Street, with township director of engineering and planning Dan Kennaley noting some of the neighbours might also be interested if the land became available.
Allan Street resident Marg Minister, joined by neighbour Stephanie Hackbart, noted the northern stretch of the road allowance has a very steep grade is unlikely to be ever used as a roadway. They pointed to a similar conveyance done some years ago on nearby Geddes Street as a rationale for selling land to them.
In Breslau, the township received a request from Tony Denison, on behalf of AM Denison Holding Ltd., to purchase an 830 square metre portion of Woolwich Street North immediately adjacent to the property at 61 Woolwich St. N.
The conveyance of the proposed lands would address the existing encroachment of the Denison gravelled parking area within the existing road allowance, Kennaley noted.
The portion of Woolwich Street North that is subject to this request is located between Woolwich Street South and Fountain Street in Breslau. That stretch used to be part of Highway 7, but was turned over to the township when the province realigned the highway many years ago.
The road is township property, along with an allowance that is decidedly not uniform, varying from 12 metres to 35 metres as Woolwich Street runs north towards Fountain Street. Given that a standard road allowance is 23 metres, there are portion of the street that could be sold to neighbours, said Kennaley.
“There’s merit to Mr. Denison’s request,” he said of available space along that stretch of Woolwich Street.
As with the Winterbourne road allowance, Kennaley said he expects other Woolwich Street residents would jump at the chance to increase the size of their properties.
“We’re frankly surprised there haven’t been more inquiries at this point.”
To that end, he suggested the township might look at declaring all applicable land as surplus – some might not be suitable if there are underground services to deal with, for instance – in one fell swoop, making the purchase option available to property owners at a later date. Two other property owners did in fact attend the meeting to express interest.
Kennaley noted the purchasers would be responsible for all costs, such as surveys and appraisals, associated with the process.
Responding to Coun. Larry Shantz, he noted if the township were to “front-end” the costs, any future purchaser would be assessed a pro-rated share of the expenses.
It’s early in the process, however, with this week’s public meetings just the starting point. Depending on feedback from other interested parties, there might be a need for another public session before moving on declaring the land surplus, for instance, Kennaley said.
An eventual decision on the fate of the proposals would have to be made by council at a later date.
