Subject lands: Image From Grey County at madeingrey.ca
Grey Highlands CAO Karen Govan says the municipality wants to ensure the community has the right information when it comes to the conditional sale of lands around the former Talisman Resort.
The Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy said in a recent release, it made a cash offer for the lands on Friday, August 20th.
The conservation group’s Executive Director Bob Barnett said in the release, “While Grey Highlands has been negotiating with a development group to build multiple residential and other units on the site, we expect that the Municipality will see that our offer is consistent with the strong views expressed by hundreds of community members in the recent Beaver Valley Visioning sessions, as well as its own official plan and Climate Change policies.”
Barnett was quoted saying, “Large scale residential and commercial development is not an appropriate use for these lands, which should be preserved in their natural state and managed to provide ecosystem services, available for use by the wider community.”
CAO Govan says in a response to a request from Bayshore News, “The municipality feels there are a number of inaccuracies in the media release provided on August 24th, 2021, by the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy (EBC) that concern us.”
Govan says the municipality and the developer Westway, are in a due diligence period related to the sale of the properties.
Govan explains, negotiations have only been related to the purchase of the land and ensuring development for the properties stays in line with the vision of the community for the full Beaver Valley Corridor. She says and municipal council and staff representatives, “continue to meet with Westway to ensure alignment.”
Back in May, Westway Group developers presented a proposal to council.
A local group, Friends of the Beaver Valley along with the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy made a competing presentation. The local community group advocated for the lands to be managed as a nature reserve and advocated for a focus on sustainable development and educational resources.
On July 29th, Grey Highlands announced the conditional sale of the lands to Westway Capital Group.
Govan says, “No plans for development have been presented at this time, so any speculation on the types of development that Westway may be considering would be premature.”
She adds, “In addition, the majority of lands in the 11,330-hectare Beaver Valley Corridor are publicly owned lands; 3,330 hectares in this Corridor are protected and will remain as natural environments and green space.”
Govan goes on to say, “The Beaver Valley Corridor is guided by the policies of the Niagara Escarpment Plan, one of the most prescriptive pieces of planning legislation in Ontario. The Niagara Escarpment Plan protects the geological and ecological features along the Niagara Escarpment to ensure that the features are not diminished as growth takes place. Also, future use of the site must be approved by the Grey Sauble Conservation Authority, the Niagara Escarpment Commission and align with both Grey County and the Municipality of Grey Highlands’ Official Plans.”
Meanwhile, the EBC says, if their offer were to be accepted by Grey Highlands, they intend to preserve the lands in perpetuity as a nature reserve and for community recreational use, including permanently preserving the Bruce Trail running through the lands.
The Talisman Ski Resort opened back in 1963, and at the time, was the largest ski resort in the province, however, it eventually closed in 2011 declaring bankruptcy.
The municipality bought the whole property in 2013 after it accumulated $2 million in tax arrears. The municipality then severed the land into thirds, selling the resort portion to a numbered company (2420124 Ontario Inc., represented by Phil Calvano and Brian Ellis) and keeping the 59 acres of recreational land overlooking the ski hills. The municipality also owns the 75 acre golf course property.
The numbered company that bought the resort was looking to create the Talisman Mountain Springs Inn, but ran into difficulty.
In October 2020, the municipality said it was collaborating with the owners of the old Talisman Resort to increase the development potential of both the privately owned resort land and the surrounding municipally owned lands by collectively marketing the properties that made up the original resort.
The process has moved forward with the use of investment attraction consultants, thinkCOMPASS.