Doug Tarry calls the sale of a parcel of land to the west of the Elgin County Railway Museum an innovative first step to revitalize the downtown railway lands.
The deal was completed on June 28 of this year for $2.4 million and a ceremony was held this past Tuesday at the museum to celebrate the move forward.
The St. Thomas developer made that revitalization observation almost three years ago. On Feb. 20 of this year, city council unanimously agreed to declare certain parcels of land that partially comprise Jonas Park to be declared surplus to the city and those parcels were to be sold to Doug Tarry Limited (DTL).
In the summer of 2021, Tarry sought to purchase the eight acres of railway land at $300,000 per acre for a low-rise residential development that would front onto a new street to be created off Ross Street and north of Jonas Street.
The land transaction has not been without controversy.
About three months after council’s decision on Jonas Park, area resident Terry Mason launched a petition opposed to any such development on the railway lands.
Mason has lived on Barnes Street for more than 40 years and he is more than a little passionate about Jonas Park. City council green-lighting the deal with Doug Tarry spurred Mason into action.
“In my 40 years here, it’s always been a parkland.”
In his petition, Mason stressed, “This proposed construction goes against everything the ECRM stands for.
“The land should be used for its intended purpose – to educate and celebrate our deep, rich history in the rail industry. It is crucial that ECRM follows their mandate to preserve and protect all railway assets.”
Speaking with Mason this spring while sitting at a picnic table in Jonas Park he observed, “What I find disappointing is Doug Tarry has always been a well-respected builder.
“It just upsets me that I don’t see it as helping the museum when you take half their property for profit.”
It is too early to tell whether the completion of the land transaction and the ceremony on Tuesday will appease Mason and others in the neighbourhood.
At this week’s gathering, Tarry noted, “My family and I and everyone at Doug Tarry Ltd, continue to be fully committed to working with the community to create a vibrant, thriving downtown that boosts our economy, helps our businesses and enriches the lives of St. Thomas residents for generations to come.
However, Tuesday’s ceremony was about more than the sale of eight acres of land to Doug Tarry Ltd.
Tarry used the opportunity to announce a financial gift to help secure the future of the downtown facility.
“Today is really about the commitment we made and, actually, there are a couple of them.
“The first one is, we have a cheque presentation for $200,000 to ECRM to keep the project moving forward.
“And that’s in celebration of our purchase of the land.”
Additionally, there was a gift of $36,295 to help the ECRM, “envision and shape the strategic direction of its museum and building to create a strategy for a sustainable future.”
At the February council meeting, St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston called it a case of the city being bold with the railway lands.
He challenged members of council to think about what is the best use of the downtown railway lands.
At Tuesday’s ceremony, Preston referred to St. Thomas of the future.
“It’s important to be looking back and seeing what is here and what was here.
“And how does that fit the new St. Thomas and how it can move forward?
“The City of St. Thomas welcomes communities working together like this.”
In a previous interview, Scott Sleightholm, ECRM president, stressed the funds from the land transaction “are just a seed and a starting point for us to continue into the future and retrofit and restore that building and the museum.”
“It is an extremely exciting time for ourselves, volunteers and the membership here at the museum.
“It’s a starting point for us to take into the future, the next step.”
Along those lines, in July of 2021, we talked with Matt Janes, then vice-president of the museum’s board of directors and he laid the cards on the table.
“The reason we’re doing this is we need to raise money in order to protect our main assets which are the museum building and the collection.
“And so by selling a portion of the land, the money we raise will go a long way toward protecting and restoring the building and protecting the tremendous collection we have.”
In the same vein, Preston had previously observed, “This is the start to the process and we will touch it many times.
“This is the city being bold with the railway lands. What is the best thing we can do with the railway lands in downtown St. Thomas?”
It is worth remembering that a series of commitments are attached to the sale of the land as follows:
- Restoration of the rail connection between Ross Street and the ECRM transfer table (east side of the museum), via the lands in front of the CASO station and transfer access rights to the ECRM.
- Coordinate ownership over the former passenger platform in its entirety with the CASO station ownership.
- In cooperation with the city and adjacent landowners, extend Centre Street from Ross Street to CASO Crossing. Upon completion of the Centre Street extension, Doug Tarry Limited will convey the DTL-owned portion of these lands back to the City of St. Thomas.
- The re-establishment of the Trans-Canada Trail connection through the project site. Upon completion, DTL commits to conveying the DTL-owned portion of these lands back to the city or the appropriate entity.
- To work with the city and adjacent landowners to explore a new road/corridor access from the project lands to Talbot Street.
- To work with the city to restore and/or improve Jonas Park.
- In addition, the city requires that the sale of the surplus city-owned properties be conditional on the establishment of a formal agreement stipulating that Doug Tarry Limited shall be responsible for the following:
- Assume all costs associated with the land transfers.
- Confirm and assume all costs associated with possible Trans-Canada Trail realignment and pavilion relocation with the Trans-Canada Corporation.
- Share in costs associated with the completion of a Secondary Plan which will:
- Be led by city staff.
- Include the area bounded by Talbot Street, Ross Street, Wellington Street and CASO Crossing.
- Have a robust public engagement process.
- Be adopted before the commencement of any area redevelopment.
- Maintain vehicular access to the Centennial Sports Club.
- The land sale agreement will also contain a clause stipulating that physical site development must commence within three years of the land sale. If site development has not begun by this date, the city will have the right to purchase the parcels of land for the original sale price.
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A WILLING HOST FOR BATTERY STORAGE
Late last year we documented a proposal to enhance the reliability of the province’s electrical grid through energy storage.
At that time, the city was approached to house a battery storage facility.
EDP Renewables Canada is proposing to build such a project on five acres of land adjacent to Messenger Freight Systems on Highbury Avenue.
EDP senior project manager Darren Carl explained battery storage technology.
“It is designed to take power from the existing transmission system in the province to charge the batteries during periods of high levels of generation and when energy generation is lower, it then discharges that power back into the system.”
The facility would provide up to 75 MW over at least four consecutive hours, storing the energy in banks of lithium-ion batteries.
The project is being developed in answer to the Independent Electricity System Operator’s (IESO) long-term request for proposals for the procurement of capacity services to meet the province’s electrical grid reliability needs.
At a public meeting in November of last year, Carl advised local permits were to be issued by the province’s Independent Electricity System Operator before the end of this year, with the requirement the facility come online sometime between May of 2027 and April of 2028.
Well according to a correspondence in Monday’s agenda package, the project has been given the green light.
According to Stephen Lecce, the province’s new Minister of Energy and Electrification, the St. Thomas undertaking is one of 13 across the province to get the go-ahead.
Lecce writes, “I was pleased to see that your community will be home to the 71.25 MW Edgeware Battery Storage project.”
He continues, “We have been clear that support from municipalities is mandatory for proposed projects to be eligible to compete in these procurements.
“I appreciate your partnership as a willing host community, which is key to ensuring that businesses and families have an affordable, reliable and clean electricity supply as Ontario continues to grow our economy.”
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Re-purposing a St. Thomas brownfield site is one more step in attacking the city’s housing shortage
ASKING TO GRANT A GRANT EXEMPTION
Another grant application is before council for its meeting on Monday (July 15) and as so often is the case, there is a twist to this one.
The organizers of the Iron Horse Festival, now operating as the Railway City Music and Arts Festival are requesting a grant of $11,502 for this year’s event running Aug. 15 – 18 in Pinafore Park.
Of that total, $5,000 is a cash request while the remainder is for park rental fees.
The catch is the organizers are asking council to consider the four-day event as an “exceptional circumstance” so that it would be exempt from the current maximum grant of $3,500.
City Treasurer Dan Sheridan is recommending council approve the grant request to the $3,500 maximum.
Will any members of council push to increase the grant, keeping in mind there is only $6,410 remaining once the festival receives the $3,500?
There is still just under half a year to go and no doubt other requests will come before council.
STILL WITH FUNDING REQUESTS
On the agenda for the first council meeting of the summer (July 15) is a request from Heather Sheridan, Director of Social Services for the hiring of an additional Supervisor of Housing Stability Services to the staffing complement in the Social Services Department.
It’s not a position that many are likely familiar with so the request is of interest.
According to Sheridan’s report, the Housing Stability Services (HSS) division within St. Thomas-Elgin Social Services has a couple of distinct areas: social housing and homelessness prevention.
“The St. Thomas-Elgin Centralized Waitlist has approximately 1,400 households. Staff work proactively with tenants to assist with housing stability and supports.”
She continues, “Over recent years, the impact of the economy, housing shortages, increased housing costs, and occurrences of homelessness have created serious challenges and pressures on municipalities.
“Since 2020 the demands and pressures to deliver Housing Stability Services in St. Thomas-Elgin have significantly increased year over year.”
Sheridan goes on to cite several key statistics.
“In St. Thomas-Elgin, there are approximately 1,100 units of social housing. Approximately half of those units are owned by the municipality and operated in partnership with other city departments.
“The St. Thomas-Elgin Centralized Waitlist has approximately 1,400 households. Staff work proactively with tenants to assist with housing stability and supports.”
Sheridan continues, “Pressures and demands for social housing and housing affordability support have increased significantly and it is projected to continue to increase into the foreseeable future.
“However, the workload for these activities has reached a point where additional resources are needed to continue achieving successes, mitigate staff burnout and impactfully deliver Social Housing and Homelessness Prevention services.”
“Further, many non-profit housing providers have, or are nearing, the end of their original mortgages and service agreements which requires strategic leadership by
HSS to support these providers to continue providing this much-needed service in our community.”
This begs the question, with the push in Ontario – and indeed across the country – to build more housing, you do not always hear the call for affordable housing.
When he was Associate Minister of Housing, we asked Elgin-Middlesex-London MPP Rob Flack about what is considered affordable in today’s market and the impression was a single-family home in the $500,000 range.
So, is the focus on building the housing that is most needed?
It would appear not, based on Sheridan’s report.
She continues, “To date, the leadership of St. Thomas-Elgin Social Services has used creative and innovative strategies within existing resources to manage the increasing workload in HSS, including leveraging support from the Ontario Works leadership team.
“These efforts have led to many successes including a reduction in the number of people experiencing chronic homelessness and an increase in the number of supportive affordable housing units available.
“However, the workload for these activities has reached a point where additional resources are needed to continue achieving successes, mitigate staff burnout and impactfully deliver Social Housing and Homelessness Prevention services.”
She outlines the financial implications of a new hire.
“The annual salary and benefits cost for the addition of one new Housing Stability Supervisor position is $125,000 for the year 2024. The costs associated with 2025 have not yet been determined.
“The pro-rated salary and benefits cost for the new position, commencing in August 2024, is approximately $50,000, staff are confident that the 2024 cost can be managed within the existing budget due to staffing vacancies.”
The city is getting quite an admirable reputation for its social housing leadership.
That includes not only the work of city hall staff but also partners like Indwell, Eastwood Housing and the YWCA, Doug Tarry Homes and Sanctuary Homes for Project Tiny Hope.
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