The following article appeared in the October 9 edition of the Guelph Mercury:
While the City of Guelph would like to not own the former IMICo property on Stevenson Street, it has not been sold.
Viewers of a televised Ward 2 candidates debate this week heard otherwise.
Responding to a question about what should be done with the heavily-contaminated foundry lands, candidate Ray Ferraro suggested off-loading the property.
“We’ve got to get out of it,” Ferraro said. “Sell it for small business or factories.”
“It has been purchased,” incumbent Vicki Beard responded, adding she expects the owner to work with the city and local residents to shape the future of the 13-acre site.
Ferraro said in an interview Friday Beard’s revelation “was news to me.”
In fact, the property is still city-owned.
“If anyone was the slightest bit interested in buying it, I’d know,” said Ward 1 Coun. Bob Bell, who has identified remediation of the site as a top priority in his ward.
In August, the city’s finance committee voted to seek proposals from the private sector to redevelop the former International Malleable Iron Company site, which the city has owned for more than a decade.
The committee heard a consultant estimated soil remediation on the site will cost between $4.4 million and $8.7 million.
At the time, city realty manager Jim Stokes told the committee there had been several expressions of interest in the site, but when he began talking about the remediation required “those talks ended pretty abruptly.”
Bell said Friday the property can not be sold right now because it would cost more to clean it than it’s worth.
“You have to have a positive property value before anyone would be interested in buying it,” Bell said.
During the debate, several candidates expressed a desire to see housing on the site.
But Ferraro noted given the property’s location, along rail lines and adjacent other industrial uses, “why the hell would anyone build houses on it?”
Bell conceded using the IMICo site as a rail yard or similar use would require less remediation, but is not in the city’s interest.
“The railyard use . . . is not a suitable use for the centre of town,” Bell said.
Beard could not be reached for comment Friday.