DENIS WALSH COULD BE generously described as a wild card around the Kamloops council table.
He often appears not to be on the same page as his council colleagues, and occasionally not even in the same book or library.
But Walsh was right on target this week in how he identified hypocrisy in a plan brought forward for one City of Kamloops property.
The former Thrupp Manor lot on Royal Avenue was purchased by the city when the facility closed down more than a decade ago.
After years of doing little to nothing with the property, the city now plans to subdivide it into five single family lots, presumably to be sold off.
Walsh’s prosecution of the plan was spot on.
The Official Community Plan calls for multi-family development on the North Shore, and this property has accommodated multiple units in a single facility previously.
It seems a natural fit, especially when the city has been buying up property it subsequently designates for affordable, multi-family use.
So why does the city want to subdivide this land into single family?
The answer, of course, is money.
You’ve heard before that there is only so much riverfront property.
This is a chance to create more, potentially turn a tidy profit on the original purchase price and add five new properties to the tax roll.
And that’s fine.
Hopefully, the revenue can be used for services or savings for the taxpayer.
But the city needs to be more open about this plan.
Real estate dealings are tricky for the city, because it’s trying to compete on a level playing field with the private sector, and has to maintain a tight handle on its strategy.
We saw the ugly results of that process spill out with the Daily News property fiasco.
If anything was learned from that ordeal, it should be that the city needs to be more open with its plans, not less.
In the case of the Thrupp property, it will go to public hearing and councillors will make up their minds there.
No one should blame the one councillor who has already made up his mind.
