Say what you will, but Mayor Bill Gordon knows how to play to an audience.
At the recent committee of the whole meeting, and final council appearance before breaking for summer vacation, an update regarding Midland Bay Landing was asked of staff by Gordon to ‘extract some information’ for residents.
The discussion occurred during a planning services bi-annual report regarding strategic land use initiatives, which included five early-year projects and three late-year projects. As an RFP (request for proposal) was referenced within a waterfront master plan and the Midland Bay Landing project, Gordon asked community and growth executive director Steve Farquharson to expand on what it meant.
“What the current RFP that was just released is for is to retain a consultant who is going to assist us with the broader, larger RFP,” said Farquharson, “to try and get interest in having a developer come on board; whether it’s through the North American or European markets, so it’s going to go internationally as well.
“This first one is just to get somebody on board to assist us in drafting that RFP, who has experience in trying to attract developers with larger scale developments.”
Farquharson further explained that no public consultation would be needed for the initial procurement, but emphasized that public engagement – for both the Midland Bay Landing project as well as the waterfront master plan – would be “significant” with multiple avenues for residents to provide input.
Gordon responded by reiterating pledges that some council members had made during the election.
“Of course, I’m a huge proponent of ‘let’s get this thing going, let’s parkify the east side, keep the 1,100 metres of the shoreline public and build something amazing in our deep-water port that can bring in tax revenue and bring in tourism, and everyone can enjoy’,” said Gordon.
“I’ll remind folks that I have $5 million of private money pledged to parkify that eastern side if we don’t go back on that pledge. That can help inform the conversation too, but we’ll do all of this in the public information centre or whatever format you decide to run this in. I want the community to know that this project is back on track. It’s huge, it’s once-in-a-lifetime.
“We want to get as much done in this term, before we go lame duck, as possible so we can hand the baton to the new council, and they can carry it on and it doesn’t fall off the track again as it did – arguably partly by design – this term,” Gordon added.
Following the meeting, Gordon told MidlandToday that the conversation raised during the planning services report “was semi-orchestrated because Midland Bay Landing update wasn’t on our published agenda.”
“I used to try to work things into the announcements and got spanked for it because that’s not really where it belongs,” Gordon said with a laugh, “so I was able to make the nexus to this existing report and it was pulled thankfully, and I primed staff to be prepared.”
Within the larger discussion, a staff recommendation was made to transfer funds allocated for a housing needs assessment to cultural heritage property evaluations.
Coun. Catherine MacDonald challenged the requirement with a stance that housing needs took priority, but was told by Farquharson that the assessment was made obsolete by provincial bills and county actions, and the money could go toward hiring a consultant to help the town’s inexperienced heritage assessment committee.
The motion to receive the report for information and approve the fund transfer was granted by the committee of the whole.
The planning services department bi-annual report and strategic land use initiatives, including Midland Bay Landing update, is available in the council agenda on the town of Midland website.
Council meetings are held every third Wednesday, and can be viewed on Rogers TV cable channel 53 when available, or through the livestream on the Rogers TV website. Archives of council meetings are available through Rogers TV and on the Town of Midland’s YouTube channel.
