ALMA – The Township of Mapleton’s potential partnership with a developer of a proposed retirement complex was fleshed out at Tuesday’s council meeting.
Stuart Roxburgh, CEO of Desired Living, previously proposed an up to 250-unit retirement complex to be developed in the south end of Alma at a council meeting last month.
Roxburgh had expressed his desire to officially partner with the town to keep it as a community based project.
In a follow-up phone call, mayor Gregg Davidson said this partnership is still in the early stages as the developer needs to deal with the county government.
“Desired Living hasn’t gone to the planning stage yet that I’m aware of with the county planning department,” Davidson said. “We still have some considerations to think about and we don’t even know if it’s going to be approved.”
Roxburgh’s letter to the town offered 15 per cent of the net proceeds collected from the operation post-construction.
Davidson said the proposed stake would mean approximately $230,000 a year for the township.
In return for the partnership, the developer is seeking the town’s support for any grant applications they make to government programs.
Roxburgh has also asked the town to set aside $500,000 to be available as an interest-free fund that will be paid back over 10 years.
“Half a million dollars is quite a lot of money for a township like ours with the budget we have,” Davidson said.
The developers are proposing to build a state-of-the-art membrane bio-reactor system to process wastewater which would require town support when dealing with the Grand River Conservation Authority and Ministry of Environment.
Finally, they are looking for reasonable staff support such as being included on council agenda when necessary and marketing resources.
Davidson explained that a lot of what the developer has asked for could still happen even without an official partnership with the town.
“The township as always will assist any developer in their process before it comes to council,” Davidson said. “The staff’s job is to make sure that anybody that comes with a proposal gets all the right information.”
Davidson said the town needs to see more of the plan before moving ahead with this interesting partnership.
“It certainly is a new way of thinking that was brought forward by the Desired Living group,” Davidson said. “We’ll have a fulsome discussion on this before we move forward.”
