Point Edward Council has turned down a request to help pay for an environmental assessment of the former Holmes Foundry property.
CAO Jim Burns said council didn't want to set a precedent by committing to the owners, a group of local individuals, known as Point Edward Gateway Inc.
"One of the concerns is to do a phase two assessment that could show if there are any problems and that raises the question of what kind of costs could we get into beyond that," said Burns. "Phase two identifies them for sure and then beyond that is cleaning them up and no one has any idea of how much that could cost."
Gateway Inc. took possession of the property late in 2017, after 17 years of costly legal wrangling, and listed the site for sale for $7 million.
Burns said they've had initial talks with the ownership.
"We have had preliminary discussions about severances in a very general way, where we were asked if the village would consider severances," he said. "We have said we are willing to work with people if it would make sense for the property to put it in more manageable chunks of land for future development."
The 16 acre property is commercially zoned for a wide range of uses including retail and hotels or motels.