In 2014 Save Our Seine (SOS) and OURS-Winnipeg held a Precinct K Public Meeting at St. Mary’s Road United Church. A few local Creek Bend Road residents were in attendance that evening. Inspired by SOS’s successful 2002 Bois-des-esprits (B-D-E) public meeting at Morrow Gospel Church, the public meeting on St. Mary’s Road was meant to create public interest in a relatively unknown part of rural St. Boniface, the remaining farm fields south of the Royalwood and Island Lakes communities.
Twelve years later, there have been no SOS public meetings regarding the coming phase of Precinct K development. No alarming press releases were sent to Winnipeg’s dwindling press corps. That must mean that things in Precinct K are well in hand, right? That remains to be seen.
The spine of the Creek Bend Residents Association (CBRA) is Creek Bend Road. Creek Bend Road is the backbone that links together the two distinct halves of the CBRA. The western half is all about gentrified condo living on the banks of the Seine River, either in bungalow condos or in low-rise buildings. Local demographics skew older and relatively well off. While it might be tempting to call the area “post-development”, ongoing issues with developers regarding the last 3 undeveloped properties in the area say otherwise.
The community mobilized to create the CBRA in 2021 in large part to preserve the tree line separating the Creekbend Hollow condo community and the adjacent 180 Creek Bend Road development property. While the local community’s efforts were initially successful, the developer managed to change the City approvals agreement later during a controversial community committee meeting. While the local community eventually received a public apology after that flawed plan approval decision, the city’s decision still stands. The subject tree line can be taken down with the developer’s bulldozers at any time.
The future development of the 180 Creek Bend apartment property will adversely impact traffic flow down the north/south section of the already improved section of Creek Bend Road. Even without Precinct K development it is unknown how much longer urbanized Creek Bend Road can remain as it is with only two traffic lanes and with on-street parking.
In contrast to growing urban Creek Bend, rural Creek Bend to the east is gradually depopulating. After developers buy up the area’s farm lands, families move out and their old homes are quietly demolished behind them. Two of the area’s last 14 remaining families will reportedly be leaving their homes quite soon. The CBRA wishes them the very best.
The first indication from Qualico is that their trees on the east side Seine River riverbank, and the trees surrounding the “Smith Farm coulee” that drains into the Seine, will be preserved from destruction. No large fundraising campaign akin to the B-D-E experience will be needed to save the riparian forest. The sensitive lands will be either acquired by the City at a very low cost ($15k per acre), or conveyed to the City pro bono as parks dedication.
Adjacent to the Seine, it does not appear that the treeline separating Qualico’s Smith Farm property and the “Creek Bend Retreat” property to its south will be preserved.
Aerial photos of Precinct K clearly show us the boundaries of the many farms that define the community. Old windbreaks and tree lines easily let us make out individual properties such as Qualico’s Smith Farm. There are no guarantees that those tree lines will be preserved during future residential development.
The community has been told that the Qualico owned trees found north of Smith Farm coulee will be preserved. East of the future Southside Drive extension, Qualico pushed back in early meetings against the idea of preserving the tree line separating them from the Sampson Lands to their north. Citing the lack of an updated survey, they maintained that most of that tree line was actually located on the private property to their north. That survey has since been completed. There are no indications in recent plans shared by Landmark and Qualico of any park dedication preserving the northern tree line.
It may be assumed that the southern tree line adjacent to Creek Bend Road will be lost during road widening and construction.
At last Wednesday’s final public meeting held in Southdale, Qualico shared that it had almost finished writing its response to various environmental questions posed by the CBRA, SOS and OURS-Winnipeg. The CBRA will share that response with you when it is available.
Qualico’s decision to divide Creek Bend Road with a section of unimproved gravel roadway in the middle of its length may be controversial. Meant to discourage cross through traffic, and keeping vehicle use below the magical 1,000 trips collector roadway threshold, this decision may be approved of by some CBRA members, and not by others. While owners of smaller, non-sub dividable properties on the riverbank may be quite happy with the retention of the area’s rural feel, owners of several treed 5-acre properties may feel that their long-awaited ship has not come in after all. The promising opportunities made possible from full city services will not be obtained by them this decade, and perhaps not even in the next decade.
Qualico expects to submit its formal DASZ application to the Riel Community Committee in December.