A piece of land identified as a possible future residential housing was a topic of much discussion at council Monday night.
The majority of council voted to receive and file a report regarding establishing a value for a parcel of high-density residential land (R3) and approval to market the land for sale in Ross Park. City administration identified the 6.78-acre land, located just south of Chester Road between Ninth Avenue Northeast and Bellamy Drive, as a possible location to accommodate for multi-family development. A potential developer expressed previous interest in the land for Saskatchewan Housing.
“I do regard housing development in the city as a priority (and) that we need to be addressing particularly affordable housing needs. (I) think we share that interest and this is a project that potentially falls within that category,” said Coun. Don Mitchell, who moved coincil receive and file the report.
“But I also think that we are increasingly faced with circumstances and decisions in which we’re doing one-off consideration on property development initiatives with no broader context in terms of integrated neighbourhood planning or long-term consequences for our decisions.”
He said the timeline was unrealistic because the proposal was created last minute. Coun. Candis Kirkpatrick said she agreed with Mitchell on some points. The business development division’s report stated the land is sloping and would have an issue with shallowness affecting natural sewer drainage. The engineering department suggested installing a small lift station that would pump wastewater or sewage to the northern end of the property at a cost of between $200,000 and $250,000.
For more information, see Thursday's edition of the Times-Herald.
