***Original published in South Mountain Press, November 30, 2018***
‘The Meadow’ Safe from Development – For Now
The new Harrison Park RM Council dealt with their first major, contentious issue at the last Council meeting on November 20 during a heated Public Hearing concerning development of an Onanole area known as ‘The Meadow’. A company, Riding Mountain Estates, had petitioned to have the Victor Avenue property reclassified from “RG” Residential General Zone to “RMH” Residential Mobile Home Zone.
A five person delegation representing Riding Mountain Estates and Grandeur Housing of Winkler laid out their plans for the undeveloped green space which is located 1 km west of Highway 10 on the south side of Victor Avenue. The proposal was to create a 100 plus unit modular home park. The homes would be a minimum of 20 feet wide, trucked in, placed on pads, and sold for $130,000-$180,000. The Grandeur representative gave a slideshow presentation of some of their model homes and stated that they would be built with skirting and no hitches, there would be some variety, and they would be four season ready. A real estate agent with the group gave his opinion that these would be good entry level houses that were well built by a reputable, experienced company. The main pro argument advanced by the delegation was the economic benefits and spinoffs that would be gained by the local community.
But the packed crowd of 35 plus concerned citizens attending the Public Hearing outright rejected the plan. In fact, there was not a single shred of support from the local community presented during the hearing. It took an hour and a half just to read into record the 33 letters opposing the by-law change. The Grey Owl Estates Board of Directors sent a letter against the proposal. Another five concerned citizens gave verbal rebuttals to the plan. Also, if you take a drive in the Victor Ave/Meadowview Drive area you will see ‘Save the Meadow’ signs in front of just about every home.
The main reasons for the ‘Say No’ campaign centered on the following main points:
- There is already a glut of undeveloped lots from Riding Mountain Estates directly across from the Meadow on the north side of Victor Ave. They should be developed first before more building gets started.
- Traffic concerns on Victor Ave were a main concern. The road has no shoulders and there would be problems with entry onto Highway 10. The commensurate addition of foot and vehicle traffic would drive up an increase of accidents and noise pollution.
- No one was in favour of a ‘trailer park’ that was not going to fit in with the general development of the area. The existing homes are mostly high-end, custom builds on large lots. There has been a long standing stipulation from former Councils that the area would have low density housing that fits into the surrounding environment. There are RM bylaws governing esthetics, size and colour of homes, and limitations on development of land for mobile homes. People felt it was unfair that the rules that they abided by for their home construction were not going to be followed by this developer.
- Environmental and infrastructure factors were also a major issue. The neighbors did not want to lose their wildlife corridor and green space. They had questions about water, garbage, and sewage plans for 100 extra homes. They wanted answers to watershed and erosion risk queries before development started.
- The last major argument against the plan was a general belief that property values would decrease due to the presence of a ‘trailer park’ in their community.
The considerable assemblage against the proposal were not against development of the Meadow per se. But they were definitely against this type of housing plan which in their opinions did not make any sense.
In the face of the community’s strident opposition and after a brief period of deliberations, Council unanimously defeated the proposal put forward by Riding Mountain Estates.
When contacted for comment, a representative of Riding Mountain Estates said he was disappointed with Council’s decision. When the organization held preliminary discussions with Council during a June 5, 2018 in camera session, there seemed to be a general acceptance for their preliminary site plan proposal. If there was public opposition, the group was willing to retool and work with Council and the affected neighbors.
In fact, the representative believed that had a planned Public Hearing for October 9 had gone ahead, the proposal might have passed. Perhaps the former Council had started to hear the rumblings of disapproval and felt pushing the matter over to after the election was more prudent. The abrupt cancellation of the planned agenda item definitely hurt the proposal’s chance of succeeding.
There was also an issue with a leaked site plan document from that first meeting back in June. According to Riding Mountain Estates, those plans were confidential and preliminary. But they got out and subsequently showed up on social media. Consequently, this helped to stir up opposition which had time to build with the extra six weeks to get organized. The representative was upset with this development and has not ruled out legal action in order to recover financial losses.
As for future plans for the Meadow, Riding Mountain Estates is exploring options to tender for sale both parcels of land on either side of Victor Ave. The property will be advertised to local and foreign buyers and all reasonable offers would be considered. As the representative put it, ‘If the neighbors want to save the Meadow, then buy the Meadow’.
So for now, local residents will be happy that the Meadow is safe from development until new investors take over.
Blair is a personification of a ‘Jack of All Trades and Master of None’. He has held several careers and has all the T-shirts. Time to add the title Blogger to the list.