Residential development good for R.M.

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This article was published 22/04/2010 (5671 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

St. Francois Xavier could soon grow by nearly three dozen new families as a result of a proposed new residential development in the municipality.

Mike McCaughan, a longtime local resident and business owner, is seeking municipal approval to build a 31-lot residential subdivision just west of Senecal Drive along the Assiniboine River in the town of St. Francois.

McCaughan said that the municipality hasn’t had any new development in recent years and that the project he has proposed will be good for the R.M.

“Because I live here I want to build a development that will be good for the whole community,” the owner of McCaughan Manufacturing Inc. said.

“More people living in St. Francois means a larger tax base for the R.M. and more customers for the businesses in this area.”

The proposed subdivision will total 15 acres in size. Individual lots will be between one-third and three-quarter acres in size.
The catch is that current municipal bylaws don’t allow for residential lots that are smaller than one acre and must be amended by the municipality. The municipality has already begun discussions about amending the bylaws.

“The lot sizes are substantially smaller than what we have been using,” explained chief administrative officer Robert Poirier. “We are still operating under the old zoning bylaw which calls for one-acre lots.”

Poirier said that smaller lots would be advantageous for the municipality.

“Council wants to go to one-third acre lots in the new zoning bylaw,” Poirier said. “The reason for that is the larger lots just aren’t affordable for the municipality.”

McCaughan said the project won’t be feasible unless the municipality amends its current zoning bylaws.
“Making larger lots is just not feasible,” he said.

Poirier said the proposed subdivision would increase the municipality’s tax base by between $50,000 an $60,000 a year, which represents an increase of 7% to 8%.

Such an increase would mean the municipality wouldn’t likely have to increase taxes during the next several years, he added.
“If this subdivision goes ahead it would be like three years of tax increases that wouldn’t be necessary,” Poirier said.

McCaughan said that he hopes to have shovels in the ground this summer if the project is approved by the municipality.
“There is a lot of money put out right now for this subdivision, so if I could start this summer that would be great,” he said.

McCaughan noted that the lots will sell for between $100,000 and $160,000 dollars each. His company would build at least a dozen of the homes in the subdivision, he added.

The public hearing for the both the subdivision and the zoning bylaw change will be held May 11 at 7 p.m. at the St. Francois’s municipal office.

 

prescott.james@canstarnews.com