https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-does-city-care-somia-sadiq-a52fc/
Winnipeg media have a very hard time understanding what function a city planner performs. This week, in their coverage of the Granite Club apartments planning approvals, they called local planner John Wintrup a developer. They also called Landmark Planning & Design a developer this week when describing Terracon’s new plans for an Ile des Chênes development. While planners are often the public face for a land or project developer, they are not the actual developer.
Landmark Planning & Design has had a long association with the Creek Bend community. During the dark days of COVID they first met with the community on Zoom to discuss the first iteration of Progressive Realty’s 180 Creek Bend apartment development concept. They facilitated Irwin Home’s aborted attempt to build a strip mall, medical centre and fast food restaurant at 1269 St. Anne’s Road. This year Landmark is facilitating Qualico, and its silent partner Waterside, in planning and approving a large housing development in Precinct K South.
Qualico’s proposed development in Precinct K South is the next, next phase in Sage Creek development. Sage North, the former Precinct J, is currently being marketed as a bedroom community adjunct to Sage Creek, full stop. It appears that Precinct K South, which I often refer to as Sage West, is yet another Sage Creek bedroom adjunct.
The abandonment of the City’s Bus Rapid Transit line paralleling the CPKC Emerson line resulted in the abandonment of Genstar’s Residential Multi-Family lots next to the railway tracks. It also resulted in the dismantling of plans for a mixed-use or commercial centre for Precinct K. While we had been conditioned to accept the” Live, Work, Play” mantra as the new paradigm, the planning concept was abandoned without apology when market conditions changed. The walk to buy a litre of milk and a loaf of bread from almost any new home in Precinct K South will be way too far and will take too long. Precinct K South will be exactly the kind of community that we were told was not sustainable. It is a car-centric community.
The implosion of local media began long before the two Community Reviews were summarily shut down. While Waverley West still receives sporadic media attention, South-East Winnipeg gets little to no media attention. The Precinct K South consultation process is a case in point.
While Donovan Toews is the public face of Landmark Planners, his business partner, Brendan Salakaloh is their lead representative in Precinct K. While we now know Donovan’s thoughts on litter, roundabouts, public consultations and how you can never own enough maps, Brendan remains a mystery. Having said that, the meetings I have had, along with SOS and the CBRA Board, with Brendan and with Bryan and David from Qualico have been respectful and informative.
The established Creek Bend community, both rural and urban, is peripheral to Sage West. There will be nowhere for us to buy goods there, no intriguing restaurants to visit. As most Creekbenders are retired we will not be sending our kids to the two new LRSD schools. The Dakota Street recreation/civic complex will continue to have way more activities and programs than the new Bonavista city facility. We will probably continue to patronize familiar Dakota Crossing food stores and conveniences. We will not be within the gravitational orbit of the Qualico/Sage Creek economic solar system.
I found it fascinating that Genstar partnered with the Sobey family’s Empire company to build the Bonavista community. The vertical integration of housing construction and food distribution to the new households is intriguing. Again, this synergy was of no interest to local media.
Rural Creek Bend land ownership remains fragmented, with no known developer landholdings. With no developer advocate rural Creek Bend lies in planning limbo, neither developed or undeveloped. New streets will abruptly end at our gravel roads. Water and sewer lines will be tantalizingly close, but unattainable. Access to new land drainage to the Seine River is expressly forbidden.
While the City awaits the 3 technical studies from WSP on rail safety, services and traffic, their PP&D department is apparently passive, awaiting information. There is no apparent City interest on what may be next for rural Creek Bend and its urban cousin. Without a developer-driven planning process, the new Precinct K South-West remains a blank slate. Like Godot, we wait, but for what?