RMWB Council has officially wrapped up until after the election, and last night’s meeting had a familiar topic of conversation.
Council passed a bylaw amendment that would re-designate land in the Saline Creek Plateau from an urban expansion district to a residential one.
But developers say they need highway 69 to be twinned to fully accommodate the people living there.
Mike Walsh, a member of the Rotary Club that is developing the land, says that once the province catches up on infrastructure, the housing market will follow.
“I think we’re going to go through a paradigm shift here,” he continues “when Parsons Creek north finally breaks open, we’re finally going to get to a place where there’s enough supply in a competitive market place.”
With phase 1 of Parsons Creek almost maxed out, the city says this development is crucial to meet demand in 2014.
Mayor Melissa Blake says that figuring out this hurdle is vastly important to the bigger issue of the city’s housing market.
“It was very refreshing to hear developers say ‘We can’t see the housing prices increase anymore,'” she adds, “because I’ve been saying that for years. I’ve always been wrong and apparently we can see them rise more and more, but I don’t want to.”
Kim Jenkins, a member of the Keyano College Land Trust Corporation that owns some developments, says unless there’s a plan to twin the road, they’re starting a project they can’t finish.
“And so although yes we can put some houses in the ground right now, the faster we develop and the more background traffic that comes onto highway 69, the quicker the road system fails.”
September 11th, 2013
