Email received August 27th from Michael Dwyer, Chief Administrative Officer, Township of Rideau Lakes

Good afternoon,

I would like to thank you for your interest in, and feedback on, the Portland revitalization concept plans presented at the open house this past Saturday.  

I have attached the plans/boards that were presented at the meeting.  If you would like to submit initial comments or supplemental comments, please feel free to do so by email to me at: mdwyer@twprideaulakes.on.ca .  Given the tight timelines involved, please endeavour to provide comments by Friday at noon.

The next step will be taking a summary of the feedback received to a special Council meeting scheduled for 2:30-5:30pm on Tuesday September 4th, in Chantry.  

At this meeting, Council will also be presented with, and undertake an exercise exploring, the financial aspects of the facility concepts using a ‘proforma’ tool currently being development by the Township (the genesis of this project).  Proformas have been used by the private development industry for years to assess the financial merits and risks of varied and/or evolving development concepts.  We are taking this tool and specifically designed a version for municipal use to help us better consider innovative approaches to facility development and renewal in small/rural municipalities.

If you would like to better understand proformas and how they can be used to guide investment decisions, you can read more here: http://plannersweb.com/2013/12/proforma-101-getting-familiar-with-a-basic-tool-of-real-estate-analysis/

Please be advised this meeting is not another meeting for direct public feedback. Rather, it is a meeting for Council to review the pubic feedback received to date and engage with the concepts for the first time as well.

Community revitalization is a longer-term process.  I am very pleased to see the community is so engaged and open to dialog.  At this very early stage, the next major decision point for Council is to determine if they wish to waive the conditions in the agreement of purchase and sale, and accordingly finalize the purchase of the Gallagher House property.  Under the purchase agreement timelines, this decision must come in September.

Attachments:

Facility Concepts - Portland - August 25

Streetscape Design - Portland - August 25

Supplementary - Facility Concepts Portland - Aug 25