City’s conditions scuttle sale of Dominican Gardens

After nearly two years on the market, the Dominican Gardens, bordering Empress Avenue and Lorne Street, are no longer for sale.

The possible sale of the green space had attracted attention and concern from the community, which, with the help of the Dalhousie Community Association, spearheaded a petition encouraging the city to buy the land.

For Somerset Ward, which has the least green space in the city, the gardens would ideally have been preserved as a public park.

The Dominican University College passed on the city’s offer and decided to remove the property from the market, according to Brother Jean-Marc Perreault, spokesperson for the college.

Somerset Coun. Diane Holmes explained that the city’s offer included a partial sale of the property for redevelopment along with that of adjacent city property, abutting the Dalhousie Community Centre.

Perreault says the college was concerned about the conditional offer: the city would only buy the land if it could secure the sale of the redevelopment land, the proceeds of which would pay for the purchase of the gardens.

The college intended to use the revenue from the sale for the maintenance of its other properties and services.

Although the college may again put the property up for sale, Perrault says it fears losing the tranquility which the green space provides.

In an email, DCA president Eric Darwin, who had urged the city to buy the property from the beginning, questioned community access to the gardens.

Despite allowing community members to make use of the space, Perreault stressed that the gardens are private property, which the college must pay to maintain, and not an accessible public space as the gardens have been portrayed since the beginning of the petition to the city.

The gardens will continue to be private property but will remain relatively open to the community.

When asked if the city would consider a partnership with the college to help ensure further access to the gardens for the community, Holmes said “the city is not looking at subsidizing the space.”

She says the city will “continue to look for more small parkland (to purchase) but at the moment there is nothing on the books.”

Instead the city is focused on investing in existing green space such as the Jack Purcell dog park near Elgin Street.

But the ward is still lacking in overall green space and the gardens could eventually be sold with no guarantee that this “wonderful piece of mature green space,”as Holmes described it would be secured for community use.