Residential land development is a lot like sausage making. Most people don’t want to know the exact details of their making. They just want to see some nice bangers on their plate or a nice show home to visit after everything is done. Fair enough.
People don’t care that Waterside Development and its partners outbid several competitors to buy the former Meyer Lands in South Bonavista. They don’t care how and when Qualico bought the Smith Farm Lands in South Royalwood. They don’t care who eventually buys the Sampson Lands south of Warde Avenue. They don’t care what goes into the sausage making. Fair enough. This article is for those who do care how the sausage is made.
A comparison of the city property map to the Landmark DASZ map is interesting to development train spotters. For one thing, the Qualico Forest reportedly saved as parkland in the NW corner of South Bonavista is a bit smaller than the present-day forest. A few dozen trees will have to be quietly felled after all.
The stand of trees in the middle of the as of yet unbuilt Creek Bend Road ROW will have to be felled. Such is the price of progress.
The developers are obtaining unbuilt City owned Creek Bend Road and Four Mile Road ROWs east of Evelyne Reese. Are they buying the land from the City or are they trading it for park space somewhere else?
Qualico and Waterside et al will share a new residential street to be built just south of Bonavista’s Whitehorn Crescent. How will the details for that get worked out?
Land development is a secretive world. Information is a valued commodity. Does anyone know who else quietly owns part of Qualico’s Taylor Farm development? Does anyone care that Landmark and Qualico never mention Waterside in Precinct K public meetings? Probably not.
Landmark’s Precinct K plan does not include the two residential acreages on Creek Bend Road immediately east of the railroad tracks. They are not part of the DASZ subdivision and rezoning under discussion. While it is reasonable to assume that they will eventually be developed, one would think they would be bundled into the subject DASZ if they were to be imminently developed. Right?
Three independent sources have told me that Waterside now controls both the 390 and 410 Creek Bend Road properties. The original 5-acre RR5 property had been subdivided years ago to allow a local family to build two houses. Sources tell me that these recent transactions are not recorded on the MLS. They cannot be verified through conventional title searches, not yet anyway.
The latest informant added a new detail. They said that the subject properties will be the sites of future condo development.
You might see why Waterside has two kept these properties out of the Precinct K South joint venture. The two properties already have legal access to an existing road. If they are held back from the DASZ they don’t have to pay Qualico an administration fee. The new Creek Bend railway crossing will already have been constructed beside them. Full City services and utilities will be provided to their curbside no matter what. Waterside merely has to pay for their share of the local improvements. The City will undoubtedly accept its standard 10 percent fee in lieu of park dedication.
A second benefit is that the new RMF units will not be part of the subject DASZ application when it is voted on by the Riel CC in December. The future traffic generated from those new residences will not be under immediate review.
As they say on the news, these charges have not yet been substantiated in court. I am more than willing to amend this article if given new information.