Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Following up on the original report of property sales made by the Town of Greater Napanee over the last decade, KPMG has been retained to do a ‘deep dive’ on a trio of properties.
Greater Napanee council voted to hire the firm to take an extremely close look at the circumstances surrounding the sale of 32 Oke Rd., 313 Belleville Rd. and Heritage Park. The review will be done for an estimated cost of $15,000-$20,000. Council voted on the resolution at their Feb. 9 meeting, which was held virtually via Zoom and broadcast on the town’s YouTube channel. A close look at those properties was one of the suggestions made in KPMG’s first report, which was presented to council in January. Those properties were singled out among the 10 looked at in the original review because of a number of ‘controlled breakdowns’ during their sales that were noted by the firm.
“If we were to do that review, it’s a very straight forward methodology,” explained Kas Rehman, a partner at KPMG who made the presentation to council. “Really it would be a matter of looking at additional documentation, including electronic documents and correspondences and emails, that level of detail.”
KPMG’s findings will be presented to Greater Napanee’s legal council, Tony Fleming, in closed session due to the fact the report would contain identifiable individuals.
Rehman noted the review would consist of interviews with key stakeholders.
“Our role would just be to bring forward a factual report based on what we find,” added Rehman. “Typically in my experience when there are controlled breakdowns there could be many reasons for those types of breakdowns. It could simply be that the controls were not well understood. It could be that folks weren’t around and unable to complete certain parts of the process. There could be other reasons as well. I think the real purpose here is just to understand what happened and to do that deeper look to make sure all the facts are on the table.”
Councillor Terry Richardson said as much as he didn’t want to spend the money, it could be beneficial.
“It could save us money down the road if we are able to find the breakdowns if there were any that may have cost us money in the past,” said Richardson. “I think it’s a very reasonable request.”
Council originally hired KPMG to review tax sales after public outcry following the sale of 32 Oke Rd., which was sold for almost 10 times its purchase price just a short time after the town sold it.
-Klaver Properties owner Alex Klaver expressed his intent to alter the building plan for a residential building currently under construction at 58 Richmond Park.
An artists rendering of what the unit at 58 Richmond Park will look like when completed.
Presently approved as a five storey, 40 unit building, Klaver is hoping to add three more units to the plan.
“The intent of the application that’s before the committee this evening is fundamentally to add three units to the building,” said Youko Leclerc-Desjardins, a senior planner for Fotenn Planning, who spoke on behalf of Klaver Properties. “Those three units are proposed to be added to the ground floor. There are of course implications to that. Adding units means adding parking spaces, we are proposing to maintain the parking ratio of one and a half spaces per unit. We are also proposing to continue to meet the amenities area requirement, the landscape open space requirement, those are key requirements that we’re not asking to amend.”
A decision on the request is expected to be made at council’s next meeting on Feb. 23.
“I appreciate the aesthetics of the building that has been presented and designed,” said councillor Ellen Johnson. “It’s not just a big square block sitting on top of a hill. Considering that you can see it from almost the far end of Dundas at Deseronto Street, you can just see it peaking over top of the hills. I’m really pleased to see that there’s going to be multiple materials used and a staggering of edges so that it is pleasing on the skyline as well.”
-Council also dealt with a request pertaining to another residential build in town, this one from James Selkirk and the Millhouse Yards Subdivision, formerly known as Heritage Park.
Selkirk was able to successfully convince council to send a letter of support for an expedited review of his application for Environmental Compliance approval from the Ministry of the Environment.
Selkirk said his project has been held up until he can get the approval, which he’s been told can take up to a year to obtain.
“I just think it’s absolutely deplorable that in the day and age of wanting increased housing and customer service standards across so many different levels of bureaucracy, government agencies, whatever, that one of the provincial ministries can see a timeline of a year as even acceptable,” said deputy mayor Max Kaiser.
The deputy mayor added to the motion that council would send the letter to premier Doug Ford and local MPP Daryl Kramp.
“I’m like deputy mayor Kaiser, I can’t believe we even have to ask for this,” said Isbester. “We’re not allowed to use COVID as an excuse, they can’t do it either.”
-Greater Napanee council will continue to meet via Zoom for at least one more meeting.
When Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox and Addington’s Public Health unit was upgraded to green on Feb. 10, council had the option of returning to in-person meetings at the Selby Community Hall, which would continue to be broadcast on the town’s YouTube channel. Council voted to remain completely virtual for the Feb. 23 meeting with the intent to move back to Selby for their meeting on March 9, providing the province allowed for them to do so.