Ready to go

Builder’s hurdle is access to waterworks services

Sterling is ready. It wants to build 200 homes in Wellington. As a village infill project, it won’t scarf up farmland to build homes. Located on two sides of Cleminson Street, the prospective neighbourhood is easily walkable to the village core—to shops and restaurants. The housing formats—mostly townhomes—are smaller and thus more attractive to firsttime buyers and seniors seeking a smaller format with lower upkeep costs. There is much to admire about the plans.

But the builder is stuck. It’s not market conditions or interest rates. The thing holding the developer back is access to water and wastewater services.

Paul Mondell, a principal at Sterling Group, acknowledges that other builders and lenders are largely on the sidelines waiting to see where interest rates land and how matters resolve south of the border. But he expects the market to settle down and normalize by the fall. By then, he wants to be on the ground to begin marketing phase one of his Wellington neighbourhood.

But that won’t happen until Shire Hall either reclaims its unused plant capacity or incremental additions are made at the waterworks facility to accommodate more homes.

The municipality says it has just enough capacity remaining in its plants for 320 new homes in the village. It has committed this capacity to a developer in exchange for $12 million in upfront development charges. But nearly four years have passed with no sign that the developer will build homes in the community—or use the remaining capacity. It has owned this land since 2006.

New waterworks may be up and running before the developer begins clearing land or building new homes. In the meantime, no other homes may be built in the village.

Mondell suggests that the County’s waterworks utility take a closer look at usage and capacity in its system to see if another 150 homes may be found in the system. He also suggests the developer’s grip over the remaining capacity in the Wellington plant should have a time limit.

“Some of the remaining capacity has been allocated to folks who aren’t necessarily going to use it in a reasonable period of time,” said Mondell. “In the meantime, why is the municipality holding everybody else up?”

Mondell has also proposed installing temporary waste treatment, as is used in Quinte West, to move the project forward. He reports having a difficult time getting Shire Hall’s attention on his project.

“It’s a great location,” said Mondell, “Our product is more affordable than some. I think if we had a clear path on infrastructure—sewer and water capacity— we would definitely be moving forward.”

Mondell suggests that the smaller scale of his project and a timeline of 18 months to two years gives Sterling Homes the confidence to push forward on this Wellington project. But he is stymied for want of water—in a village bounded by Lake Ontario.