OLIVER PAIPOONGE, Ont. – A potential 52-house subdivision along Rosslyn Road will be under consideration by Oliver Paipoonge council during the coming months.
Later this month developers will publicly present the plan for what is being unofficially referred to as the Brickyard subdivision, which would be located on the parcel of land south of Rosslyn Road on the northern banks of the Kaministiquia River between Vibert and Ridler roads.
A developer hosted open house was held Wednesday at the Rosslyn Road Community Centre, just metres down the road from where the proposed subdivision would be situated on former brickyard lands that have been vacant for decades.
If approved, the individual properties would be sold as vacant lots with the buyer responsible for construction. The homes would be connected to the existing water system in Rosslyn, which currently has 32 homes on the line, and would have private septic fields. The average lot size would be about one acre.
Oliver Paipoonge mayor Lucy Kloosterhuis stressed council has yet to make a decision on whether to approve the development but said she believes there would be a market for the property.
“We want to grow. It’s been our motto always in Oliver Paipoonge that we want to keep moving and not step backwards,” Klooserhuis said.
“We’ve had some very good success with our industrial and commercial areas in the last couple of years and now we would like to see some residential complement those commercial and industrial businesses.”
Kloosterhuis said Oliver Paipoonge is still in the process of finalizing their new official plan, which must be completed before a decision could be made on the proposed subdivision. That process is expected to extend into at least April.
The mayor said she has heard from residents who have had questions related to water supply, sewage and increased traffic in the neighbourhood.
The province has restricted Oliver Paipoonge to approving new subdivisions only in one of the municipality’s three hamlet areas, Kloosterhuis added.
“This is the only one that has piped water and subdivisions require piped water,” Kloosterhuis said.
About two dozen people turned up for the afternoon information session.
Rick Potter expressed frustration with the transparency of the process to this point and questioned whether the subdivision is necessary.
“There’s way too many lots and they’re on the most significant water resource we have in Northwestern Ontario,” Potter said. “The bottom half of the subdivision should be a park and it should be accessible by everybody.”
The developer will present the plan at a public meeting scheduled for Jan. 31 at the Rosslyn Road Community Centre beginning at 6:30 p.m.
