The process of selling the abandoned Sarnia General Hospital site has been renewed.
Sarnia Council has directed staff to issue another request for proposals (RFP) to gauge development interest in the Mitton St. property, except for the EMS lands.
Councillor Bev MacDougall is cautiously optimistic.
"I think as a community we want to be careful when we blend our uses, that we don't hog-tie the development community in getting themselves into a corner where half of their proposal could succeed and the other half would encumber success of the first part," says MacDougall.
Staff have reported that the former SGH property continues to be an “attractive” location for a planned detox centre and new funding opportunities have also been identified recently for the creation of new affordable housing.
MacDougall says both are very much needed in the community.
"I believe that with Bluewater Health working with city officials, we can put the right team of stakeholders together and consultation with the community is a good step," she says. "We need to make something happen over there, because the decline is not good for the neighbourhood, it is not good for the city and there is clearly uses that need a place to go."
The Ontario Superior Court Of Justice ruled in May that the city is the owner of the building and care and maintenance of the site was assumed by the city in October.
The last time an RFP was issued for the site was in July 2014.
A development group proposed a $15-million health campus project, but the transaction didn't proceed because, according to a staff report, conditions in the offer weren't met within the time frame agreed upon.