City plans to sell West St. Paul riverfront lot

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/07/2011 (5201 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AFTER sitting on riverfront property in West St. Paul for 40 years, the City of Winnipeg is ready to sell the prime parcel of land as a prelude to extending water and sewer pipes into the neighbouring municipality.

But politicians on both sides of the Perimeter Highway are still waiting to see the terms of a service-sharing deal that would have Winnipeg charge its northern neighbour a hefty premium for water and sewage treatment.

On Friday, council’s property committee will approve a plan to sell North Perimeter Park, a 44-acre plot of riverfront land northeast of the traffic interchange where Main Street meets the Perimeter Highway. The city acquired the land in 1971 with the original intention of converting it into a recreational field.

After another site was chosen in Headingley, the West St. Paul land sat empty, as the city feared development on its northern flank would increase urban sprawl.

Now, with the city poised to make a deal to extend services to the neighbouring municipality — and generate revenue from the sale of water and sewage treatment — the development of North Perimeter Park poses no problem, economic development manager Barry Thorgrimson wrote in a report to council.

Pending council approval, the land will be sold on the open market. The city has already received several unsolicited offers to buy the land, which will be sold with the understanding no development can take place until Winnipeg and West St. Paul sign a service-sharing agreement, Thorgrimson wrote.

“This is getting close to being done,” said council property chairman Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan), referring to the extension of city pipes north from Riverbend to a future North Perimeter Park subdivision. “It’s quite readily serviceable from where we have services already.”

West St. Paul, however, has yet to see a formal service-sharing proposal from the City of Winnipeg, said Mayor Bruce Henley. The municipality is joining forces with the RM of St. Andrews to build a new sewage-treatment plant to serve its northern flank, but it may be cheaper to hook up southern neighbourhoods to Winnipeg’s system, he said.

“Without some kind of sustainable waste-water treatment in place, nothing will be going in there,” said Henley, noting the province will not allow the construction of new small, stand-alone treatment plants such as the one that serves Riverdale, a West St. Paul neighbourhood located inside the Perimeter.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which has been encouraging the city to sell North Perimeter Park for years, applauded the pending sale. But Manitoba director Colin Craig said the city should remove any caveats on development.

“If there’s a demand for living outside the city, the market’s going to take care of it,” said Craig, a former city council adviser.

On the other hand, Fort Rouge Coun. Jenny Gerbasi said council can’t vote on the sale until it learns more about what she described as a “secret deal” to extend city services to West St. Paul.

Such a move could exacerbate urban sprawl without providing Winnipeg with enough revenue to cover the costs of more bedroom-community residents who use city services, such as road maintenance, without paying for them, she said.

Gerbasi is also concerned about a city plan to extend services northwest to the RM of Rosser to allow CentrePort to proceed.

“Are these deals good for the City of Winnipeg’s bottom line? Are they looking at the impact of the area, including the bleeding of our tax base?” she asked. “I don’t know, because I haven’t been informed. These are secret deals to us, and we’re elected members of council.”

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca