Breathtaking

Picton’s Master Servicing Plan pushes waterworks cost estimate to $300 million

Picton’s freshly minted Master Servicing Plan (MSP) will require unprecedented spending on infrastructure upgrades to boost capacity to deliver drinking water in Picton and Bloomfield and to treat wastewater in Picton. The current plan brings the total estimated waterworks spending to $297 million—with several components not yet costed.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PLAN:

•  $157 million in water service expansion
• $140 million in wastewater service upgrades
• $66 million wastewater plant expansion in Picton
• $56 million water transmission pipeline from Wellington to Picton
• $18.3 million provincial funding
• $42 million of this spending to benefit existing waterworks customers

BREAKING IT DOWN
The current cost estimate for a regional system to provide water to Picton and Bloomfield is $137.6 million. It includes a $56 million water transmission pipeline stretching 20 kilometres from Wellington to Picton. (By comparison, the cost of building the water and wastewater trunk lines two kilometres across Wellington—currently under construction—will cost at least $24 million.)

The MSP also calls for big expansion to Picton’s wastewater treatment and distribution system, totalling more than $84 million— with $66 million earmarked for expanding the relatively new treatment plant overlooking the town.

According to the plan tabled last week, a full $42 million of the proposed $300 million cost estimate is calculated to benefit existing waterworks customers. This means that this amount will be deducted from the amount payable by developers.

The municipality plans to leverage new growth by extracting development charges from new homebuilding to fund most of this work, which it claims will limit the impact on rates and user fees.

The County is banking on 3,244 new housing units being built in Picton, with another 2,714 housing units between 2033 and 2043. Development charges from an unprecedented building boom are anticipated to fund the massive infrastructure expansion.

The next step is a regional development charges study (Picton/Wellington/Bloomfield), which will determine who will pay for this infrastructure and when. This study is expected this fall.

AGREEMENT SIGNED
The developer of Cork and Vine in Wellington, a company owned by Kaitlin Corporation, signed a subdivision agreement last week before the October 1 deadline set by Shire Hall last month. The company has until October 30 to fund development charges payable under two agreements with the municipality.

Shire Hall has said that if the developer missed these deadlines, it would forfeit its $4 million security deposit and the exclusive right to the remaining capacity in the waterworks plants in Wellington.