Norfolk County to sell old Vittoria town hall

Luke Edwards

Advocate Correspondent

After failing to come to an agreement with a non-profit group, and despite newfound interest from two other groups, Norfolk County will be putting the old Vittoria town hall up for sale on the open market.

Councillors made the decision at its June 24 council meeting, when they also decided to continue discussions about the future of the park located next door.

“Norfolk’s been struggling with the direction for quite some time now,” said CAO Al Meneses.

Back in January councillors voted to put out a call to non-profits who would agree to purchase the town hall for a nominal fee. Any such group would have to put forward a proposal that would include a plan to pay for extensive capital work required. If no proposal came in that met those requirements, staff recommended putting it up for sale on the open market.

A group through the Vittoria and District Foundation made a proposal.

“Overall, the proposal met most of the county deliverables and objectives identified within the EOI (Expression of Interest) and would allow potential local access to the hall. However, it also proposed a number of county concessions that would cost the county over $500,000 over five years for Norfolk County to dispose the hall asset,” a staff report read.

Given that was the only proposal, and that staff found it did not meet the requirements the county set, they recommended proceeding with selling the property.

However, at a meeting in early June members of the Lamport family - who originally donated the land that became the park and were involved with the town hall property as well - presented to council. Jennifer Day said there was an agreement at the time that parkland would be conveyed back to the family if the municipality decided it no longer wanted to operate a park there.

Her presentation led councillors to defer a motion, and at the June 24 meeting Day returned, saying the family was also interested in running the town hall in a non-profit scenario.

A third group, the Norfolk Arts Council, also came forward. Les Anderson said their group was going through the incorporation process during the initial EOI and could not put forward a proposal.

Coun. Chris Van Paassen sought a reconsideration to allow them to reissue the EOI.

“Three groups made deputations today, with any luck there would only be one joint presentation made by those three groups,” he said.

The motion did not receive the two-thirds required for a reconsideration.

Councillors then did approve a reconsideration to split the two properties, ultimately directing staff to prepare a report on options for the park that include discussions with the Lamport family, while moving ahead with selling the town hall property.