SOS Stakeholder Meeting with Landmark Planning/Qualico Communities (December 18, 2025)
I was able to participate in yesterday’s stakeholder meeting between Landmark Planning/Qualico Communities and local environmental group Save Our Seine (SOS) on Zoom, blizzard or no blizzard. While last week’s CBRA session with the plan proponents lasted one hour, this session lasted two hours. It was a fascinating look at the subdivision development process taking shape from its earliest conceptual stages. I felt lucky to have the opportunity to look inside the virtual room where the subject DASZ will be written. Save Our Seine, metaphorically speaking, wants to be in the same room as the developers, not outside of the room looking in. Qualico did not seem very open to the concept.
Qualico’s Smith Farm Holdings
The Province of Manitoba will determine if any First Nation/Metis stakeholder input and historical/archeological research is required at this time.
Their meetings with various City departments have gone well so far. The City supports in principle a Smith Farm Coulee park preservation concept.
Bonavista readers will be interested to know that the City’s abandonment of the Rapid Transit corridor concept, originally planned to be built east of the CPKC Emerson railway line, will have major implications for further Precinct K development. While developers are not allowed to build at higher-densities than mandated by the precinct plan, they are allowed to build at lower densities. Precinct K east of the railway tracks will not be the Transit Orientated Development it was originally envisioned to be. Without the RT line and its local area passengers/residents there will be no need for ancillary high-rise apartments. Without that population density there may be no need for even a minor commercial hub in the area. Sage Creek already serves as a major commercial hub for catchments outside of its boundaries; e.g. Island Lakes. Like Sage North, South Fraipont may effectively become a satellite of Sage Creek. (My words.)
The proponents did not mention future or even existing industrial/commercial uses on lands at the extreme south of South Fraipont, i.e. Melnick Road. They did not mention their silent business partners that day or discuss any future business park development in Precinct K (South).
Qualico feels that the berms and the current system of double fencing used in Bonavista, the CPKC fence and the City fence both built in parallel in a long corridor, will be replicated and enforced by regulations that “run with the title”.
Qualico admitted that road traffic volumes generated from a high-density area would not have integrated well with the existing road infrastructure in Bonavista to the north without an RT component for new residents to also use. Building types such as stacked townhomes will be considered in lieu of high density RMF.
Qualico stated that the still forested Four Mile Road ROW is an unbuilt street, not City PR parkland. Community stakeholders such as SOS should contact the City to impress upon them their thoughts regarding future possibilities such as the use of the street right-of-way as an actual street, sale of the land to Qualico for development or, presumably, trade of the ROW to Qualico for other forested lands.
Qualico inferred that the unbuilt Four Mile Road ROW includes an implicit permission for a new railway crossing. This crossing may be of critical future value. Moving or transferring any such grandfathered railway crossing ROW to the anticipated Warde Avenue crossing is not part of the Qualico DASZ application before us.
West of the tracks, Qualico maintained for a second time that the narrow tree line separating their Smith Farm lands to the north and the “Sampson Lands” to its south is found mostly within the Sampson Lands. Surveyors are currently constrained by winter weather so that claim may take a while to confirm.
Qualico seems to have accepted the term “Smith Farm Coulee” for the riverside, forested gully in the extreme north-west of their Seine River Lands. SOS was gratified to see that City generated topographical maps of the area indicate that much of the coulee will fall within the mandated waterway requirement, land below the 230.6 elevation that is legally required to be sold to the City at a set price. That is a best-case scenario for SOS. These lands will not need to be part of the developer’s parks dedication.
When Qualico was asked if was prepared to offer more than 8% of its subject developable lands for park creation purposes, they replied with a hard no. On a positive note, Qualico did say that they would shape the southern and eastern contours of the subject forest to reflect a larger boundary than the meandering contour lines of the coulee would indicate. They also promised not develop any of their sandwiched, landlocked forest lands found immediately north of the coulee and south of the Sampson Lands.
Qualico will not apply for the rezoning required for the sale of new R1-E home building lots along the riverbank directly behind the existing house at 265 Creek Bend Road.
A simple question regarding the guarantee of a north-south Active Transportation trail connecting their northern boundary to their southern boundary was given a surprisingly nuanced response. The presence of the floodplain lowlands found within the Smith Farm Coulee may necessitate the construction of a “structure” needed to allow for an AT pathway ROW. The location and the nature of any such structure was not given.
Save Our Seine stated its long-standing approval of naturalized storm water retention ponds such as the ones found in Royalwood Phase 2 to the north. Qualico stated that there are other options, such as “dry ponds” of one-acre or larger. Qualico revealed that the idea of using Smith Farm coulee, a seasonal stream, as a discharge point for their ponds was an interesting one. (NOTE: The relevant land drainage study has not been completed to confirm that possibility.)
Pending the relevant report’s outcome Qualico anticipates at least two future ponds in this DASZ. They will follow one upon another via a series of linked pipes that work by means of gravitational flow. Larger and more expensive pipes are needed if you do not follow the dictates of gravity. The City requires that they have an outfall to the Seine River. After the meeting SOS reported to the CBRA that they had “heard positive things about mitigating the effects of development on water flows and quality.”
Qualico considers Precinct K (South) to be a smaller order project. The subject area’s 150 acres (developer provided information) is comparable to the adjacent Sage Creek community’s latest and last phase, the 144-acre Phase 10.
Sage Creek is currently building a Phase 10D. Qualico does not envision Precinct K requiring 4 phases. As the subject area is larger than what could be reasonably serviced in one summer season, some phasing will be necessary. The result of the 3 reports that they are awaiting, on traffic, underground services and land drainage, will suggest or even dictate the final design and the number of phases that are required.
Qualico confirmed that the traffic inflows/outflows from any possible Vermette/Sumka residential development would be calculated if the City so required them. Qualico is obligated to study the effect of their project on adjacent streets and communities.
Qualico did not discuss any local infrastructure improvements to any area outside of their DASZ, e.g. the existing Creek Bend and Sioux Road West gravel roads.
Qualico again stated that they will not be making any amendments to the secondary plan. They will build and “stub” their required section of the north/south Southside Drive if that is necessary. They informed us that potable water lines must be serviced in a loop configuration, and must not end in a stub to assure water quality.
Qualico brought up the soon to be completed RidgeWood West project in Charleswood multiple times. In RidgeWood West active park space was reduced from their original plan design in response to community efforts in order to support passive parkland, preserving forest and connectivity to the Harte Trail to its north.
Qualico said that it welcomes the opportunity to plan a project in Precinct K that has diverse geographies, land uses and housing options.
Save Our Seine was invited to maintain contact and to share further thoughts with the DASZ proponents. They were informed of the first public meeting to be held, at a location yet to be determined, in January 2026. SOS strongly requested a second face-to-face meeting with the proponents after that first public consultation was held. Qualico mentioned a later second public meeting, again with downloadable PDF documents available on the Landmark website. They wish to move forward with a completed DASZ application in the early spring 2026, where once again SOS can make comments on the subject plans. Qualico hopes to begin infrastructure construction in late 2026/spring 2027. They hope to begin actual house construction in the summer/fall of 2027.
The meeting was an amiable one. While SOS did not seem discouraged by what they had seen and heard that afternoon, no date and time for further meetings was made at that time.