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Letter to the Editor: 49-lot housing subdivision ironies

There are some fascinating ironies to city council's decision this week to approve a 49-lot housing subdivision out Arthur Street three kilometres distant from the nearest trunk sewer.
City Hall

Letter to the Editor:

There are some fascinating ironies to city council's decision this week to approve a 49-lot housing subdivision out Arthur Street three kilometres distant from the nearest trunk sewer.

To see the irony you have to think back to the sale of the Municipal Golf Course.

The city didn't sell the golf course to the highest bidder, a building lot developer.

Mark Smith, the head of the planning department, says it would have been "bad planning" to allow housing lots to be built on the edge of the city.

Instead, the golf course was sold to Bruno's Contracting who planned to build a tourist resort.

That's irony number one.

Irony number two: you may recall that Bruno's isn't actually required to build that resort.

The sale agreement is silent on any commitment by Bruno's to actually go ahead with the project. The property continues to lie fallow.

It's the same with the Nadin Contracting subdivision.

The company must install sewer lines along the front of each of the building lots. But there's no requirement that Nadin meet any timeline for extending that distant trunk sewer to hook up with his subdivision.

Contractors seem to get great deals with this group of politicians. To quote an old Latin teacher, lots of "quid", but little "pro quo".

The final piece of irony in this: you may also recall the mayor's favourite mantra. He hates building "roads to nowhere". Well now you've got sewers to nowhere and he's ok with that.

Shane Judge





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