It is certainly an improvement that Winnipeg’s real estate brokers and agents no longer market every large lot property put up for sale in South Royalwood as a potential multi-family residential development site, despite the already approved Precinct K area structure plan recommendations. In 2014 the historic Creek Bend Residential Estate area was approved for future ultra-low-density development, with minimum quarter-acre house lots. On a Venn diagram this pits potential land purchasers against each other; developers and land speculators against high-SES home buyers looking for a new rurban experience living on large riverbank lots.
A real estate insider reports that “buyers who are high net worth are buying regular size lots in Tuxedo around this price so I’m biased here, but I think 5 acres on the [Seine] river within city limits is a good buy. Obviously, these buyers are going to have put money into it before building but I’m sure it’ll be worth it down the road.”
While urbanists may decry urban sprawl, the subdivision and rezoning process is how the City of Winnipeg affordably acquires new Seine riverbank. For an incredibly cheap $15k per acre the City obtains river valley lowlands within the flood zone needed for spring water storage and, as a side benefit, for wildlife and greenspace protection. Thanks to the efforts of environmental watchdog Save Our Seine the City treats the Seine River as its favourite child. While the Red River’s Daman Farm riverside development in St. Germain was recently left totally unprotected by the Riel Community Committee, Seine River developments are forced to hand over critical riverbank, provide land for an active transportation trail top-of-bank, and, to top it off, the developer even has to build the new trail and pay for it.
This makes the job of Save Our Seine infinitely easier. They never have to appear at the countless late-night Riel CC subdivision meetings that SOS Presidents in the 1990s had to attend. Does this make SOS an unwitting ally to the “growth industry” in supporting the DASZ process?
A Save Our Seine source responded, “I don’t feel SOS unwittingly supports the DASZ process, rather we find ourselves having to participate in the DASZ process in order to protect as much of the greenway as possible. We would much prefer a system where all greenway lands were automatically protected by by-laws or provincial regulations.”
While there is a raft of new City regulations regarding tree preservation, greenspace protection and wildlife/nature corridors on the event horizon, for now it is City bylaws that protect our sensitive riparian lands.
By coincidence, Save Our Seine has been asked to comment on those very bylaws next week.
“The City of Winnipeg is undertaking a comprehensive rewrite of the existing Zoning By-law. DPZ Co-Design and Landmark Planning & Design have been retained by the City of Winnipeg to lead the By-law drafting, engagement, and mapping components of the project.
A series of Topic Group meetings are being held with key organizations and sectors to:
- Introduce the project;
- Learn how different groups experience and/or are affected by the existing Zoning By-law;
- Gather insight on how the existing Zoning By-law is functioning; and
- Gather early ideas about how zoning could better align with adopted policy documents.”
That should certainly be an interesting meeting.
The City of Winnipeg has pushed back hard on recent attempts by local South Royalwood residents to develop and improve their own RR-5 properties. Local residents have often been forced to hire planning consultants to make their arguments before the Riel CC, with mixed results. The City insists that South Royalwood must be gentrified to full City standards, up to and including streetlights and street signs, before new development is allowed. While the existing standard, permeable gravel roads, open ditches, septic fields and wells, is currently tolerated, the City expects that further land consolidation will be necessary in order to fully improve the area.
Qualico/Waterside/Terracon’s current subdivision and rezoning plan going before the Riel CC this summer will include perhaps 50% of the total undeveloped lands in South Royalwood and South Fraipont (Precinct K). The implicit assumption is that public works in adjacent lands, like the improvement of Creek Bend Road, will be paid for by “others”, whomever others is. If the future model for Creek Bend Road development is new executive estates, as the last major two land sales in the area have indicated, that tacit understanding may be flawed. No other developer is standing in the wings to pay for the public works needed to improve Creek Bend Road to allow for more intense development. In the end, the City may have to pay for the public works itself, even over the objections of local residents, if that is deemed necessary.
Interesting times indeed.