SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. — As far as Summerside council is concerned, "time's up" for the old Holland College building on Granville Street.
At least that's how one councillor put it. But he wasn't alone.
Council, during its committee meeting Tuesday night, expressed frustration that nothing has been done with the 14-acre property in the heart of the city's shopping district since the province sold it to a private developer 12 years ago.
Coun. Cory Snow brought up the issue for discussion because the same developer, Tim Banks, recently announced another major housing development in the Charlottetown area.
"That's great for the Charlottetown area. But unfortunately, the property he owns here in Summerside continues to be neglected severely," said Snow.
Vandalism and squatting have been an issue with the former Holland College property in the past. In response, Bank's company, APM, erected a fence around the building and secured the entrances. However, that didn't stop someone from getting into the building in August of 2019 and starting a fire, to which Summerside firefighters responded.
"That put the lives of our fighters at risk, having to go into a building which is very unsafe and dark and so on," said Snow.
Some of the more experienced councillors noted that Banks has met with council several times over the years on this issue and suggested it may be time for another sit-down.
The possibility of developing the property was discussed as recently as 2018. Before that, the previous council had started talking about introducing a vacant property tax rate to try and deal with this building and some others, notably in the downtown. However, those plans were waylaid when talk of development started up again, followed by a change in government.
Several councillors suggested it was time to revisit that discussion.
"The preferred option is, obviously, to work with the developer to get something done but if that can't be, then what other options do we have in our toolkit to move forward and try to resolve the issue," asked Coun. Brian McFeely.
"You hear, not only from our own residents but also over and over again from visitors to the city what an eyesore that place is. We've got a beautiful city and you've got that stuck in one of the main commercial areas."
Coincidentally, a change.org online petition also recently started circulating in Summerside social media circles which calls for something to be done about the former Holland College building.
The petition was started on Feb. 28 and by March 3 it had reached 404 of its target 500 signatures.
"The owner is currently in the works of a million-dollar project in Charlottetown, P.E.I. but yet can't seem to deal with the old Holland College building," wrote the petition's creator, listed as Brian MacDonald.
Council decided to both call for a meeting with Banks and have staff bring them up to date on what research has been done on vacant property taxes in other jurisdictions.
