Environment not forgotten in southern city suburb
Winnipeg Free Press
Friday February 27 2004
By Mary Agnes Welch
Instead, it will use environmentally friendly geothermal heat and will be designed to feel a lot more like Wolseley than Linden Woods.
The province and the University of Manitoba's architecture department unveiled some design concepts for Waverley West yesterday, the result of a three-day brainstorming session last spring by architects, developers, city and provincial staff and urban activists.
The report's release comes on the eve of a potentially acrimonious debate over Waverley West and its potential contribution to urban sprawl.
The 3,000-acre development just south of Bishop Grandin and west of Waverley Street could spawn another 13,000 single-family homes, plus apartments, condos and townhouses, over the next four or five decades.
The province owns the northern half of the land, while Ladco owns much of the southern half. The city, private landowners, the U of M and Manitoba Hydro also own bits and pieces, mostly in the middle. In the next three or four weeks, city council is slated to begin debating an amendment to the city's long-term plan that would turn what's now designated rural farm land into a future urban neighbourhood.
Any Plan Winnipeg amendment comes with public hearings, and the hearings for Waverley West could be rancorous.
The province has final veto power over any decision city council makes.
Construction could begin as early as next year, although it's more likely to take two years to finalize the Plan Winnipeg changes and complete an area structure plan that lays out drainage, roads, parks and transit links.
U of M Architecture Dean David Witty, who hosted last year's design meetings, envisions Waverley West as a walkable neighbourhood where a bus stop is never more than 400 metres away and cafes, libraries, shops and recreation centres are around the corner. Green space -- such as creeks, bike paths and parks -- will snake through the neighbourhood, and there will be a variety of house styles and prices.
Garages will be built in backyards, in contrast to most modern subdivisions, where garages dominate the front of homes, earning them the moniker of "snout houses."
Waverley West has also reignited the debate over urban sprawl. Critics such as the Provincial Council of Women have condemned the plan as yet another suburb that spreads the city further outward while the inner city crumbles and healthy neighbourhoods lose residents.
Witty said Waverley West doesn't qualify as urban sprawl in part because it will be very dense development, with condos, townhouses and affordable housing units instead of street after street of spread-out single-family homes.
"This is not suburban development. This is urban development, but in a new way." said Witty. "This may be a new idea for Winnipeg but it's not a new idea in North America."
Energy Minister Tim Sale said building Waverley West will not harm efforts to revitalize the downtown or fill out existing neighbourhoods.
The province has already helped build 1,700 affordable housing units in the inner city, and any profits the government makes from Waverley West will be reinvested in the downtown core.
And the city will need another 17,000 homes in the next 20 years to accommodate new immigrants and a rising population. Even if extra land in Charleswood, Meadows West and Transcona is developed, there will still be a demand for more, said Sale.
"To us, it's not one or the other," said Sale. "It's a balance."
He also said if the city and province outlaw suburban development, house prices will go up, which ultimately harms the poor. And people wanting to live beyond the downtown core will simply move to Stonewall or East St. Paul. Sale is also planning to make Waverley West the biggest subdivision in Canada that's heated and cooled using the earth's thermal energy.
Special pumps force a water/methanol mixture through pipes into the ground. The liquid is heated below the surface and returns that energy to the building. It works the same way to cool the building in the summer, because the earth below the frost line stays at temperatures of 5 C to 11 C.
It's far cheaper to build the heating system to serve many neighbouring homes rather than an isolated one, and monthly utility bills are far cheaper in homes with geothermal heat.
maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca
PHOTO PHIL HOSSACK/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS