Hospital decision delayed to ‘get it right’

When the former term of town councillors agreed the town should purchase the 2.4-hectare Niagara-on-the-Lake Hospital property on Wellington Street for $3.5 million, its use was left up in the air, to be determined in the future.

The current council has been trying for the last couple of years to find the right use for that property, and has now agreed to leave it for the next term of council to decide.

Because of the importance of the site and the need for the process to be handled without interference, a fairness adviser was hired to oversee it.

A developer could easily begin lobbying for the property, says Coun. Gary Burroughs, who was on the hospital board at one time, and is chair of the hospital committee, and committed to ensuring a fair process.

The building is now occupied by the Royal Oak Community School. Doctors of the Niagara North Family Health Team still have their offices downstairs, until their new permanent home in a medical building under construction behind the Garrison Village plaza is completed.

Nine proposals were received in response to the town’s request for ideas about how to use the site, but in meetings behind closed doors, council decided to cancel the process.

It’s not that the ideas weren’t good ones, says Lord Mayor Betty Disero — they were.

When councillors reviewed the results of the process, and discussed the “very broad range of possibilities, it got us thinking that we need to determine more clearly what we want for the site, and how we accomplish that before we move forward.”

She spoke of looking at the bigger picture of what is needed in town and where it is best located. The hospital is just one site, one of the few remaining with institutional zoning, so council wants to be sure it’s put to the best use for the community.

The proposals were more general rather than detailed, and council also didn’t want to put applicants to the time, trouble and expense of providing more details until councillors have a better idea of their vision for the property, Disero said.

The decision to postpone it was to give more time to consult with the public, likely in a workshop in the new year, to discuss how others also see the property being used.

“Whatever is on the site will benefit the community, and we want to be sure what we do is what the public wants.”

The proposals included an arts, culture and education hub, tourism accommodation, seniors housing, residential housing and parking, among other ideas.

Disero said her personal concern is that “these were really great ideas, but we only have one piece of property. How can we best accommodate them? We have to look at the bigger picture. We don’t want to make a wrong decision, because whatever we decide will be with us for a long, long time.”

Burroughs agreed postponing the decision was the right decision.

While he has been hoping since the hospital closed that there could be much-needed palliative care and transitional care beds, at this stage, it would have to be a private company providing those beds, he said.

With the shortage of institutional zoning in town, his choice would be to see that zoning for the property retained, rather than “jumping to residential use” as happened with the Parliament Oak property.