The District of Houston has purchased just over 13 acres of land on 11th Avenue adjacent to the downtown core, establishing a form of a land bank on which any number of civic or other structures could be built.
The 13.12 acres at 3553 11th St. went up for sale in late August and council paid the full asking price of $229,900.
Now zoned as multi-family residential, District of Houston chief administrative officer Michael Dewar said the property could fit in with the already-identified need for a new community hall, a new fire hall and soon, a new RCMP detachment. Included in the list was a new building for the Dze L’Kant Friendship Centre.
“Other potential uses for the property include parkland or recreational services, housing development (with or without partnering agreement(s), and presently unidentified uses,” Dewart added.
“Owning land can create opportunity for encouraging another group or organization to provide a desirable community service on the property through a partnering agreement. For example, a local government could encourage the development of affordable housing by offering free land to a developer in exchange for the development of the product.”
City staffers recommended the purchase, indicating that “controlling the property could be beneficial for the District. Potential uses for the property can be determined at a future date.”
None of the District’s building needs are fully financed and no specific architectural plans have been drawn up for a new community hall or firehall but reports commissioned by consultants in the past several years indicating both structures are at or past their useful lives.
A number of locations for a new firehall were examined with consultants ultimately recommending the location of the current community hall.
That site would not need to be rezoned, is already owned by the District and is located close to the downtown core although it is land-locked on three sides and is in front of a school area.
Consultants who prepared a cost estimate in 2021 for a new community hall identified a former provincial government industrial storage site at 2145 Butler Avenue, the corner of Butler and Fifteenth, near the leisure center as a preferred location.
That’s considered a brownfield site, opening the possibility of senior government grants to address the issue of contaminants.