THUNDER BAY — City staff want the Hillcourt Estates sale to be delayed while council is moving towards eliminating it altogether.
Pending ratification at a future council meeting, there was only one vote against the amended motion from Neebing Coun. Greg Johnsen to scrap it from the outstanding list.
“City staff have come to us and asked for help to delay this file for a year, but I’m looking to just take it off the outstanding list completely,” Johnsen proposed to council Monday night.
“We have heard tonight at length from the mayor and the city manager about the enormous amount of work that’s ahead of us with housing. I just see this as helping out our city staff by just taking it off the outstanding list.”
Realty Services was seeking a deferral from March 18, 2024, to on or before March 31, 2025.
Northwood Counc. Dominic Pasqualino added eliminating it makes sense with all the work that needs to be undertaken on housing.
“Council has to understand the workload that they put on city staff,” he told council.
“It’s easy to get them doing all these jobs but on the other hand, there's a price for that. It’s important to get this off the list and reassure the residents that there won’t be that uncertainty for another year.”
In July 2023 council voted 7-5 to have staff report back with a recommendation on whether to sell Hillcourt Estates, along with information on future liabilities and other financial details.
The 89-unit mobile home park, located off of Rosslyn Road in the Neebing area, opened in 1976 and was taken over by the city in 1994 after a tax default.
The park has a reported profit of $170,000 a year for the city.
At-large Coun. Rajni Agarwal was the only vote against the amended motion and was looking for more information from staff.
“We need to know what needs to happen to maintain this asset. What is our infrastructure cost in the next two to five years?” Agarwal noted.
“I would like to keep it on the outstanding list.”
“It’s a multi-million dollar asset and there are a lot of tenants that live there. I would have liked to have seen further reports come to council.”
Agarwal feels the city should be looking at shedding its assets.
At-large councillors Mark Bentz and Trevor Giertuga, as well as Current River Counc. Andrew Foulds, missed Monday's vote.
Giertuga previously requested the report on a possible sale.
