The people behind the proposed redevelopment of the IMICO brownfield site in The Ward said there could be “shovels in the ground” in as soon as three years.
If true, that was music to the ears of the roughly 50 residents who attended an open house at the Italian Canadian Club Tuesday on the highly-contaminated 13-acre parcel of land at 200 Beverley St. that has been dormant since the late 1980s.
Developer ARQi R&D Inc. was behind the meeting, which owner Amer Obeidi said was aimed at informing residents on the progress but also garnering their thoughts and ideas for the property.
“It will probably be closer to three years” before shovels are in the ground, said ARQi's planner Tim Smith.
An “urban village” is planned, with a variety of residential, light industry, micro retail, artisans, green space and affordable housing options planned. Habitat for Humanity is also involved.
The site is heavily contaminated, with a variety of metals and chemicals from its years as an iron foundry and current work involves mapping the type, breadth and depth of the contamination, then coming up with a plan on how to deal with it: be that through remediation (removing or treating) or managing it (such as paving over certain types and levels of contamination where possible).
All of which will be closely monitored by the province’s Ministry of the Environment.
Costing of the various options are expected by the end of this year. There will then be a 12- to 18-month process where the Ministry of the Environment assesses the plans.
"Sometimes people don't appreciate how long it takes to do things," Ward 1 councillor Bob Bell said.
Some in the audience Tuesday were a little skeptical. Understandable given the soap opera the property has become over the past 30 years.
“We’re quite tired of hearing all the wonderful plans for the future,” attendee Rick Ferraro said. “Is there money there now to do this?
“There’s a lot of skepticism,” Ferraro said.
Representatives from the city assured him there was, and that hopefully more money would be coming soon from the provincial and federal levels of government.
“There’s no point in fooling around here,” Deptuty CAO Scott Stewart told Ferraro.
Mayor Cam Guthrie chimed in, adding “we’re doing this. We’re not just talking about this anymore.”
The city set aside $2.3 million this year for further testing and environmental work. The city has already spent $3 million over the years.
“Five million is a tonne of money, but it doesn’t get you far with a project like this,” Stewart said.
Ed Taves, the project manager on the environmental side of the development, said that while the property is heavily contaminated, that won’t prevent development.
“This was a foundry, so this is a dirty site,” Taves said. “But there’s nothing exceptional that we’re seeing.”
All the elements of the development, from environment to planning, have experience developing other brownfield sites.
Taves said the required risk assessment plan will be done by this fall and the Ministry of the Environment will then assess it. He said work on actually tackling the contamination could start in 2020.
Taves was asked how much of the 13 acres could be used for the development.
“All of it. It’s just a matter of managing the contaminant,” he replied.
Another open house will be held in the future and Obeidi said a dedicated web page to the progress of the property will be up soon.
Obeidi said other developers walked away from this site, but that he sees potential and has the plans to make it work.
“I have to have some sense of the amount of risk in developing a property like this,” Obeidi said.
“But I see this as an opportunity to do something great.”
