Leeds and Thousand Islands resident asks council to cut through red tape

Gary Pattenden stood before Township of Leeds and the Thousand Islands council Monday night not as a man with grand plans or sweeping visions, but simply as a man trying to buy a sliver of land no one else seemed to want.

The land in question is a strip of unopened road allowance – 12 metres wide, 159 metres long – wedged like an afterthought between Pattenden’s two existing properties near Sand Bay Corners. For 25 years, he said, the land has gone untouched.

To purchase this half-acre of ghost road and formally stitch it into his property, Pattenden must pay a $1,200 deposit to advertise the transaction in Brockville This Week – a paper he claims has never once landed in his mailbox.

“This is very expensive,” Pattenden told council’s committee of the whole. “And not a cost-effective or efficient way to advertise this sale.”

Citing a $597 appraisal and a laundry list of additional costs, from legal to surveying to registry fees, Pattenden asked council to waive the advertising requirement and let the process move ahead with a simple posted sign instead.

“I believe a sign posting would be most effective for the residents in the immediate area,” he said.

The request forced council to consider its own web of overlapping policies. As the township’s planner noted, at least three different bylaws touch on land sales. All of them demand newspaper notification, regardless of location or perceived significance.

Mayor Corinna Smith-Gatcke acknowledged the tangled state of things.

“Realistically, there’s some cleanup work we need to do,” she said,

Council agreed, voting at the end of the meeting to revisit its notification policies at the April 14 meeting. A staff report is expected, with potential changes to streamline the process for low-profile land transactions like Pattenden’s.

As for Pattenden, the decision will likely determine whether he moves ahead with the purchase at all.

“If this fee isn’t waived,” he said plainly, “I will not pursue its purchase.”