K&P Trail purchase price details

Jeff Green | Sep 27, 2017

In response to the front page article last week on the projected construction costs for the final 13 km stretch of the K&P Trail from Tichborne to Sharbot Lake, Frontenac County Manager for Economic Development Richard Allen sent an email pointing out two things. First, his last name is Allen, not Allan, as it said in the article. (The News apologises for the error)

Secondly, he said that contrary to an assertion in the article, the price paid by the county to the private landowners along that section of the trail is public knowledge, as the prices of each parcel were included in two bylaws passed by Frontenac County Council in June.
The bylaws include information about the sale of 16 parcels, which sold for prices ranging from $2,000 to $35,000, reflecting different amounts of trail and other circumstances. The total paid for the 16 parcels was $260,120. The county had legal costs on top of that. For a full breakdown of the payments go to Frontenaccounty.ca, click on Council at the top, then on the next page under County Council select Bylaws from the drop down menu, and navigate to 2017 and look for bylaws #22 and #24
The money for the purchases was drawn from a reserve fund transfer from the Kingston Frontenac Renovates Program.

Kingston Frontenac Renovates is a provincially funded program that provides forgivable loans to low income homeowners for necessary renovations, such as new roofs, heating systems, etc.
Over the years the program has been well used by Frontenac County residents in particular. In 2014, Kingston City staff, who administer the program on behalf of the city and the county, informed Frontenac County Council that the province was considering pulling funding for the program. In response Frontenac County set up a $400,000 reserve fund so the program would continue to operate if the province pulled out. The City of Kingston created a reserve fund as well. The province has continued to fund the program, however, and has committed to maintaining funding until at least 2019.
In September of 2016, Frontenac County staff came to Council with a proposal to divert the $400,000 reserve to the K&P Trail construction project. They proposed using $300,000 for land purchases in the 13.5 kilometre section between Tichborne and Sharbot Lake, and $100,000 to go to turning a former gas station at Hardwood Creek at the foot of Verona into a trail access park.

Against some objections, the proposal was accepted.

If current projections hold, it will cost $1.1 million for construction of the 13.5 kilometre stretch, and with the addition of about $300,000 ($260,000 plus legal fees, etc.) the section will cost $1.4 million in total, a little over $100,000 per kilometre. The money has come from grants, reserve funds and direct county taxation.

To put that total into context. When the Trans Canada Trail was being proposed, back in 1992, the ballpark price per kilometre was set by trail proponents at $36,000 per kilometre, which translates to about $55,000 per kilometre in 2017 dollars.
However, the final 13.5 kilometres of K&P Trail could be expected to cost more, for two reasons. First, the land was owned in small pieces by landowners rather than one large chunk. Second, the rail bed is not intact on that stretch and construction costs are therefore much higher.
Members of Frontenac County Council, in particular Councillor John Inglis, have requested an accounting of the entire 65 kilometre trail project, but no accounting has been forthcoming as of yet.