Comment
Crossroads
Council will soon be asked to approve a water and sewer pipeline construction project running the length of the village under the Millennium Trail. (It was scheduled to be decided at the November 14 council meeting, but was pulled over the weekend.) The cost, including an unplanned sewage pumping station, is already more than double the 2020 estimate. It will surely be more than the $24 million currently estimated. Potentially much more.
The purpose of these pipes is to enable new homebuilding north of the Trail in Wellington. However, the prospect of this happening has slipped away. The developer was to have produced a subdivision agreement by last May. The deadline passed in silence. It was to have paid $10.2 million in development charges toward the waterworks upgrade by now. Plus another $3.5 million for regular development charges. Five months have passed since that deadline, and neither the subdivision agreement nor the money is in hand.
Council must not approve the new trunk lines in Wellington until it has this money. It cannot burden the water ratepayers of Prince Edward County with this risk—on behalf of a developer who isn’t prepared to step up with his own capital. It cannot put this on water users before the developer’s financial commitment is in the bank. It cannot proceed until then.
I don’t envy Council— most of whom must say yea or nay to something that has no impact on them or their constituents. It is, however, perhaps the most important decision they will make this term.
They didn’t choose to govern a waterworks utility. They didn’t run for council to build infrastructure for a developer—particularly not for one who appears indifferent about building new homes in Wellington in the near or mid-term. The developer has owned this land for 17 years. It is in no rush. Nor has it put its money on the line to signal its interest is more than words.
Council must say no, thank you.
It was just a week ago Council heard its own advisor explain that population and new homebuilding growth estimates have been overstated here and across the region. It isn’t the first time. Another study in 2003 concluded that 36,000 folks would live in Prince Edward County by 2010. Seven years later, the population had shrunk. Running ahead based on developers’ enthusiasm is demonstrably perilous. Doing so with ratepayer’s money is reckless and unforgivable.
Every day brings fresh stories of developers halting projects in the Greater Toronto Area. Families are walking away from their deposits because they can’t afford the mortgage their dream home now requires. The construction of tens of thousands of condo units has been halted as sales hit a 23-year low. Does Shire Hall really believe the County is immune to these forces? The correction/ reset/restructuring,—call it what you want— will flow through the housing market for a decade or more. There is time to pause. Council has time to reconsider.
The province insists this community and others build homes. Your columnist wants more homes and has argued this case for more than a decade. The good news is hundreds of new homes may be built in Wellington—without a new trunk line, without replacing waterworks plants.
One developer wants to build 204 townhomes and 34 single detached homes north of the Legion in the village. Smaller format, affordable homes. Another developer wants to build a mix of townhomes and apartments at the top of Maple Street. Yet another would like to build a mix of townhomes, apartments, and small commercial behind the greenhouses on Main Street.
Each of these proposals represents infill development. Wellington’s Secondary Plan specifically prescribes infill development as a priority for this village. Shire Hall has blocked each of these projects in favour of a developer who would rather convert farm fields into subdivisions—abjectly contrary to the aspirations of the Secondary Plan.
Saying no to the trunk line in 2023 does not mean never. A day may come when the arguments for constructing it may be more persuasive. But it is not today. How do we know this? Because the developer hasn’t put its money on the table. Until then, this developer— or any developer—will continue to wait and watch its land become more valuable as water infrastructure is brought to its greenfields. And it hasn’t ponied up one thin dime.
Council must press pause. It must reassess its options in an altered landscape.
Notice of an information meeting regarding the proposed development ‘behind the Legion’ has been posted by the County. Within the proponent’s application it is revealed: 1) to accommodate storm water run-off the existing storm sewers must be upgraded. The developer expects the County to contribute to the cost of upgrading. 2) The developer believes that the existing water treatment plant and sewage treatment plant are not of sufficient capacity to service this proposed development. They are saying we cannot build without those upgrades.
This column has advocated for more housing in the village for years. It is becoming evident that in order to build this housing, the entire water system will have to be upgraded including the water supply and sewage plants. It looks like there is a choice. Stop all development or get ready to incur massive debt. Just like the Cork and Vine project there will be no guarantee that anything will be built and no guarantee that there will be financial contributions by the developer to pay for all of this expansion. Yup, it is the classic ‘rock and a hard place.’