A group of Okotoks citizens are concerned about the Town's recent purchase of 8 McRae Street for $685,000.

Last Wednesday the group met with the representatives from the town to discuss the sale of the W8 Trainer Gym site, the surrounding areas, land values, and the Landmark Site.

Nicole Watkins, one of the concerned citizens at the meeting Nicole Watkins says a group of Okotokians became concerned about the deal, after finding the title for the transaction about two weeks before the town announced its purchase.

"A citizen was pulling some titles to get assessed values, and he came across the title. At the break of a Town Council meeting he presented the title to the Mayor, it was a shocking presentation I'm sure just by the look on the Mayor's face. He wanted to know why the purchase was made, and if could they substantiate and justify the reason for the purchase."

Watkins feels the Town only released news of sale because they were forced to.

"When a title transfers, the deals done, and when the title shows the transfer happened on March 29, and then we get a release showing up on April 13, that shows you there's been a considerable period of time that has transpired before anybody knew about anything. We feel the only reason the town released that was because their hand was forced, it became common knowledge, they didn't want it getting out on social media."

She believes the price the town paid for the property was too high, and would like to see the appraisals for the site, which the town will not release under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, she feels planning is putting the cart before the horse in this situation.

As the Downtown Urban Design Master Plan has not yet been completed, the group of concerned citizens have called for a moratorium on all development in town.

Elaine Vincent, Town of Okotoks CAO says the Town followed due process in purchasing the site.

"Anytime a town is either approached to purchase a property or has an interest in purchasing a property the very first thing the town will do is order an appraisal. The appraisal is different than the assessment value that is on your town tax bill, so we will request an appraisal which is a market value of the property, so we can have our own internal strategy about how much we're willing to pay for that property. Then we'll work with the proposed seller or vendor and negotiate an acceptable value and agree to a price, and then it's just like a regular real estate transaction."

She says while the town wants to be as transparent as possible, there's two governing documents that a municipality pays attention to in these situations. The first is the Municipal Government Act which speaks to wanting to have municipalities do their business in an open and transparent way, then there's the FOIP Act which states if the town believes they have business interests that need to be protected they can exclude that from being public data.

"So when we're looking at a real estate transaction we know that the sale price is public record, so the town automatically releases the sale price, however we don't release the appraisal data because we believe it's in our own best interest, and tax payer's best interest that the link between what we pay and the appraised value is not a matter of public record."

Vincent encourages citizens who have concerns about municipal decisions to voice their opinions directly to the town.

"Town Hall is always interested in hearing from residents about those concerns, and please do approach us for that information. Often we're finding social media as the venue to distribute that information and we just like it to be based upon fact. If you do have something that's raising your alarm bells, please pick up the phone, we do want to be transparent about what we do and explain why we protect information."

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