In recent years, Estevan has been associated with a certain pace of work that outstrips most other cities across the country, but when it comes to the development of The Meadows, a proposed subdivision in the city's northwest corner, the project has moved at a snail's pace.
An original plan was on desks at the City in August 2011, and in the last three years, construction has yet to begin on a single unit, though at complete build out, the subdivision could be home to 529 low-density units, 811 medium to high-density units, and upwards of 2,875 people.
There was no visible progress around the proposed development north of Wellock Road, but during a regular council meeting on Aug. 14 last summer, Estevan city councillors voted unanimously to approve the proposed subdivision, authorizing the City's signing authorities to enter into a development and servicing agreement with Essex Developments Ltd.
A year later, differences remain between both parties and progress remains at a standstill.
In an interview last week with the Mercury, Graham Cripps, The Meadows' project manager at Essex Developments, expressed frustration with the lack of progress on The Meadows file over the last three years.
He said there were plans to begin construction this spring, but those plans fell through as the approvals process continued.
"If we could get the approvals out of the City, we would go ahead," he said. "We're going through all the hoops that we need to go through and trying to sort out all the issues from a design perspective."
The design issue that seems to be holding things up is the requirement that the development have its sanitary sewer hooked up to the northwest sewer main that has yet to be completed. The need to hook up to that new sewer is based on the lack of remaining capacity of the system in the northwest corner of the city.
"In order to relieve certain capacity, we were asked to divert proposed flows in a different direction. That can be done, but the implications of that are that it delays the development," said Cripps, noting the development is expected to connect to a sanitary sewer running down Sister Roddy Road. "We're supposed to connect to that with our Phase 2. Well, you can't connect Phase 2 until that's built, and the sanitary sewer on Sister Roddy isn't built."
City Manager Amber Smale said that while the sanitary sewer line was required for the Phase 2 of the Meadows, it wasn't holding up the first phase of the project.
"(The northwest sewer main) is a significant sewer line that would service future development in that area entirely. Essex doesn't require that main until Phase 2 of their project, so it shouldn't be a hold up at this point," said Smale.
In the spring, city council did approve devoting $250,000 to install a temporary sewer line in that area of the city in order to begin development of the 21 Parcel F properties, now known as Royal Heights Phase 3. Smale noted that temporary line is not necessary for development of the Meadows Phase 1.
"The infrastructure that's already in place will cover Phase 1 of Essex," noted Smale.
She said the northwest area of the city, which is a significant part of where the city is capable of growing, is at peak capacity, so the northwest sewer main is a future project to ensure development is able to continue in that area.
While some differences still exist between the City and the developer, both are interested in the process meeting a resolution sooner, rather than later.
"We've been working very closely with them in the last few months to get their project off the ground. We want to see them proceed and succeed at it, so we're still actively having conversations with them, trying to get information back and forth so we can get this moving," added Smale.
"It's the normal process of submitting drawings and getting clarification of what's on the drawings," Cripps said last week, noting Essex was expecting to have a more personal meeting with City representatives within the next two weeks. They have been communicating via e-mail for awhile.
"In the last three years, I've probably put through several thousand units in other subdivisions," Cripps said, signifying some frustration over the long process the developer has experienced in Estevan. "It has been what I consider to be, from an engineering point of view, an unnecessarily lengthy process."
If issues are resolved soon, Cripps said the best-case scenario would be that Essex could begin moving dirt at the site this fall, with construction to possibly begin in Spring 2015.
"It has been our intent to get to this point for three years. We're getting on well with the new staff who are there (at the city)," added Cripps. "Things are moving forward a bit better. We're looking forward to being out there and constructing stuff."
