CN land development in Neepawa discussed

Details

Published on Thursday, January 22, 2015

By Eoin Devereux

The Neepawa Banner

Neepawa is exploring its options with the redevelopment of the former C.N. land. On Tuesday, Jan. 20, council received an update on several proposals from developers that are interested in the 42 acres, near the intersection of Highway five and sixteen. That property was purchased by the Town from Canadian National Railways back in 2013.

Mayor Adrian de Groot confirmed that there are three interested parties who have seriously inquired about the land and added that in the interest of fairness during the vetting process, their names will not be made public at this time.

“There was be a fairly high level of description of the proposals, of their expression of interest. Not getting into the detail here, because the details become part of a negotiation sometimes as well as the confidentiality issues. Because if there are competing interests we need to be sensitive to those things,” said de Groot. “So, what we saw on Tuesday was a fairly high level review of what is being proposed. Is that consistent with the vision that was stated for the development of that property and is it the vision of what the community needs?”

De Groot said that these additional details were gathered by Marilyn Crewe, the town’s economic development officer, who sat down with each of the potential developers.

“What we looked at Tuesday evening was the recommendation. Our Economic Development Officer was the individual who did the interviews as requested by the previous council, in order to get a face to face and to question and to further elaborate on certain parts of their proposal,” said de Groot.  “The details of those proposals have not been shared with council as yet. So, the intent is at this point, they will be shared based on a constructed conversation based on the priorities.”

During the meetings with the EDO, the interested parties were asked a variety of questions, ranging from their financial wherewithal to the expected time lines for development. The answers were tabulated and marked on a 45 point criteria.  For the three developers, proposal A, as it was addressed during the council meeting, scored 31 points, proposal B garnered 40 points and proposal C received 35 points. 

All the information will now be distributed to the town of Neepawa’s Strategic Initiatives Committee. From there, it’ll be reviewed along with the EDO’s recommendations and then brought back to council as a whole for a final vote. De Groot hopes to see a plan moving forward within the next few months, but notes it’s best not to rush these types of deliberations.

“One of the things that we have to be mindful of is that we don’t want to jump the gun. We don’t want to develop for development sake. It’s a long term project, a long term investment in the community. It needs to be consistent with the strategic plan as to the land use,” said de Groot. “And you know, who do we short list? Who do we consider? Does it meet all of the values as identified? So, we’re not going to assume that one or any of the proposals will meet the overall criteria or the plan for the future. But at least, this is that process that was started and this council will have the opportunity to take a look at that and see whether it’s consistent with future plans.”