MELFORT — Residents of the Creekside Community subdivision in Melfort returned to council to show opposition to further bylaws that would allow for residential developments in their community.
MI Developments Ltd. is asking the city to rezone a strip of land owned by the city along Reservoir Drive from municipal reserve to residential and the transfer ownership to them. With that land, it’s asking the city to extend five lots that face Creekside Drive all the way back to Reservoir, then divide the result in half, resulting in 10 lots.
Creekside residents said in December they’re concerned the smaller lots will affect the nature of the neighbourhood they brought into.
“The whole issue is to leave it the way it was. We were sold it on the way it was, it doesn’t have to change,” said Dwight Taylor, one of the Creekside residents who spoke. “Change, we all feel, devalues our property.”
Lydia Steffen, another Creekside resident who spoke, told council that most of the residents are business owners, so they aren’t opposed to development in itself.
“This is literally just us trying to protect our investments and we feel that this subdivision will depreciate our property value,” Steffen told council.
MI Developments said it will work to make sure the nature of the subdivision remains the same.
They appeared at council on March 11.
“Really what this is, more than anything else, is an issue between the residents who bought property and the developer and that’s probably where it should be solved,” said Rick Lang, Melfort’s mayor. “But the city still has to decide whether we’re going to allow for a subdivision of that property, the property the developer owns.”
Council is expected to come to a conclusion at the next council meeting.
“In a perfect world, what we would like to see is a compromise somewhere that is developed that would work for both parties,” Lang said.
