Plans to offer Crown land for three city developments
Winnipeg Free Press
Sunday May 5 2002, A1
By Mia Rabson
The Manitoba government wants to ease Winnipeg’s housing shortage and curb urban sprawl by partnering with the City and private enterprise to develop 1,700 acres of provincial land in three areas of the city.
Family Services and Housing Minister Tim Sale told the Free Press he envisions unique suburban neighbourhoods with families of different incomes and cultures.
“We need it because there is a demand for housing,” Sale said. “This city is growing and we need to have affordable development.”
Vacant
The areas—two in the south end and one in the north—sit vacant, waiting for the bulldozers and bricklayers to arrive.
Sale said the first and largest project to move ahead is in Fort Garry—a tract of 1,257 acres west of Waverley Street and south of Bishop Grandin Boulevard. Sale said that, with good decision-making, houses can start appearing there as early as 2005.
The other two areas are Meadows West, east of King Edward Street and south of Jefferson Avenue, and Fraipont, directly south of Island Lakes. Fraipont would be the last to go forward since Royalwood, now under construction just west of Island Lakes, and the new Fort Garry development would ease demand for housing in that sector of the city for now.
Winnipeg Mayor Glen Murray said that he’s glad the province is finally coming around. The city has been pushing the province to sell or develop its land in order to generate growth.
“This is very positive.” Murray said. “We’ve been pushing the province for years to liberate this land.”
Murray said when the city put in sewer and water lines through developments like Waverley Heights and Whyte Ridge, extra capacity was built in anticipation of further development in the adjoining lands. But because the province, until now, hasn’t done anything with its land, that extra capacity went unused and new lines had to be built where land was available.
“It unlocks a problem that has been there for a long time,” Murray said.
HOUSING A4
The province has completed a feasibility study on developing the Fort Garry land and believes it is a prudent move. But no details have been signed, and all the details—everything from who will give up what land for what price, how much land the province and city might hand over to bring down costs and build affordable housing, and even which developers will get the contracts—are yet to be worked out.
Generally, developers work on plans of three to four houses per acre, which in the Waverley Heights area alone could mean over 300 new houses. But Sale said the final number will depend on the size of the lots and the type of housing built there.
Most houses in new developments sell for an average of $175,000, but Sale wants to include some lower-end housing as well.
Options
“We will have all the options because we own the land to make it a truly integrated neighbourhood,” Sale said.
This isn’t the first time the province has jumped into a development partnership for suburban housing. Together with Ladco, it pooled 485 acres of land to create the Royalwood subdivision. Phase one of the project is almost complete, and the remaining two phases will be going ahead in the next year.
But Royalwood is a rarity in that it is a major new development inside the Perimeter. Most of the other new communities in Winnipeg are almost finished. The biggest ones—like Linden Woods. Whyte Ridge and Island Lakes—are nearing completion.
More and more developers are heading outside the Perimeter to the available land there, taking valuable municipal taxes with them. Royalwood is expected to generate $7.6 million in annual property taxes by the time it is completed.
About 850 new houses are started in Winnipeg each year, while 550 new houses go up annually outside the Perimeter in the city’s bedroom communities. Winnipeg’s share of the capital region’s new housing market has dropped to less than 65 percent from 83 percent in 1985.
George Fraser, executive director of the Manitoba Home Builders Association, said it’s time the province jumped into the game. He said the developers are champing at the bit to get their hands on new land within the city.
“We are rapidly running out of serviced land,” Fraser said. “Even though we’re in a relatively slow-growth market, we are growing and, generally speaking, this is needed.”
Economically hurt
Ladco president Alan Borger said if the province doesn’t put its land into development, the city and the province will be hurt economically.
“If the land isn’t brought on, you’ll cause an increase in land prices and housing prices, Borger said. “It could restrict economic growth.”
Borger said one of Manitoba’s biggest competitive advantages is the low cost of housing, and Manitoba can’t afford to lose that.
Borger said that from his perspective, the partnership with the province on the Royalwood development was “very positive.” The province got an experienced developer with all of the expertise needed to make a project successful. Ladco was able to pool its 305 acres with the province’s 180 acres right next door to make a larger and better planned community. And the two partners shared in the start-up costs and financial risks.
Sale is hoping the city, which owns some of the land in the three new areas, as well as other owners, including the University of Manitoba, will partner with the province to pool and develop the land in those areas.
Negotiations to do so are just getting under way.
Fraser hopes that in addition to the partnership on the land, the city will sit down to discuss changes to development standards. Winnipeg requires things like concrete streets and large retention ponds in new developments, while bordering municipalities are happy with smaller retention creeks and asphalt paving, both of which are cheaper, Fraser said.
Fraser said there also have to be discussions about who will pay for expressways into the new developments. For example, Kenaston Boulevard would likely be extended to the Perimeter to serve the new Fort Garry development, but developers don’t want to pay for it. Outside Winnipeg, the province pays for the main roads, which reduces developer’s costs.
mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca