An engineering study of extending city sewage and water service to Purcell’s Cove is pitting some residents of that community against their councillor, Linda Mosher.
The study is to determine what it would take to extend existing lines that end near Wenlock Grove along Purcell’s Cove Road to the cove proper, ending at Fergusons Cove Road. Currently, all property along the route is serviced by wells or water from
Williams Lake, and by septic systems. The study is paid for through the harbour clean-up fund associated with the Harbour Solutions project, but if and when the lines are built, construction will be paid for by residents along the entire route, whether or not they want to hook up to the lines. Costs in other communities have exceeded $50,000 per parcel.
Just a short drive to the peninsula, the area is facing tremendous development pressure. The backlands, to the west of the road, is designated “urban reserve” by the regional plan, meaning that it is not to be developed until sometime after the 25-year planning horizon of the plan. But those rules are sometimes broken; in Dartmouth, developers have been successful in removing the urban reserve designation from their property.
Residents are especially worried because the old McCurdy estate, a 300-acre parcel adjacent to Williams Lake, was bought by Clayton Developments just in September, and the sewer and water study was OKed by council just five months later. City staff justified the study with two surveys of residents, in 2006 and 2007; residents question the validity of those surveys, and say that in any event five years has passed with no action, then once the McCurdy land was sold the study suddenly moved forward.
There are a lot of details to this story, which I’ll get into in future posts.
This article appears in May 3-9, 2012.
Just city staff looking for something to do with their spare time, they have fuc*ked up every other project, now it is time to get down and dirty in the sewers, where they really belong.
Why should the residents of the area pay for the developers utilities ,usually the developer pays if he wants to develop a parcel this is the way it works in BC and Alberta. The taxes here are the highest I’ve ever paid for an equivalent house, we don’t need to pay for something we already have.
To bareass- It just gets better, with all of the taxes you pay in this hog town your ass will be bare before you know it.
Another property to keep your eyes on: the 50 acre former county rehab on Bissett Road in Cole Harbour. Current assessed value about $1.5 million. The assessment is reasonable given where it is and the fact that it’s not serviced. It’ll be interesting to see what happens to this within the next few years. Call me cynical but I can somehow see the developer du jour making a lot of money.
I’d like to see The Coast do a bit of research on people switching jobs between development companies and city planning staff. I can’t believe there isn’t some extent of revolving door going on. God knows it happens with other levels of government.