Town owned Beeton property sale falls through, salt clean-up required

Posted October 18, 2012

Not only is New Tecumseth out the estimated $399,900 (listed price) revenue from the sale of five lots on Maple Avenue that fell through before the deal closed, the Town is stuck with the cost of cleaning up the on-site contaminated soil caused by previous years of winter salt storage before the property goes back on the market.

The contamination was discovered during the due diligence component of the sale, whose proceeds were earmarked to help the Town finance the $600,000 purchase of three Main Street properties immediately west of the DA Jones Library. They were bought to be part of the future redevelopment of Beeton Arena.

Last year, council amended its own zoning bylaw that changed the property from Institutional to Urban Residential, as well as reducing permitted lot sizes to squeeze five lots out, instead of four as originally planned back in 2004.

"The sale of these lands will be discussed at budget time and no decision has been made at this time," according to mayor Mike MacEachern via email this afternoon. "The sale of these lands together with sale of other properties were to be used to offset the costs of acquiring properties to facilitate the reconstruction of the Beeton Community Centre at a future date."

Those funds were taken from the hydro sale reserve fund, and were to be repaid from this transaction, as well as the sale of the abandoned, adjoining former OPP station that fronts Main Street, which sold separately. It had been listed for the same price.

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