A cramped meeting room made tensions even worse last week at a public open house for a proposed new subdivision.
More than 50 people, most residents of Hees Estates, jammed into a meeting room at the Athabasca Regional Mulitplex to find out more on the subdivision, initially called Riverview Estates.
The proposed site is located on the south side of 39th Avenue and would have one access off the current road, while 39th Avenue would be extended a short distance east in enable a second road access to the subdivision.
The 37 acre property would see close to 25 acres developed, with the majority of that being single family homes.
However, the plan does include some multi-family housing units such as row houses and apartment-style units.
There were several concerns expressed at the meeting, most of which surrounded the issue of drainage from the new subdivision and what effects it would have on the ongoing concerns many Hees Estates residents have been dealing with, such as shifting basements, eroding soil and problems with underground springs and surface runoff.
However, the list of other concerns are not so easily quantified.
John Traynor, whose home would sit right across from the development, is adamantly against the proposal.
“I am absolutely opposed. There is only one road for the 500 people they propose to house. How safe is that?” said Traynor.
“Our property values are going to go down. We need more details on how they are going to service it. The sewers are at capacity now. It certainly looks like there has been a lack of planning here.”
Traynor isn’t simply looking for changes to the proposal, but would rather see it killed – a sentiment many at the meeting agreed with.
Among some of the other reasons for opposing the development were seeing property values go down due to living next to potential rental units and concerns the proposal doesn’t include its own park so people living there would then use the parks and equipment in Hees Estates.
Despite the angst and even anger expressed at the meeting, the developer’s representative remained positive many of the concerns could be addressed before the plan is presented to town council.
Dnyanesh Deshpande of planningAlliance of Edmonton still feels the proposal makes sense for Athabasca’s current needs.
“We are going to revisit some of the issues that were brought up at the meeting and try to address those in our next revision, such as a park, connecting to the trail system, looking at drainage upgrades,” he said.
“However, we are committed to bringing in a variety of housing options with this development, which in keeping with the town’s municipal development plan.
“While there is a segment that will want R2 (single family homes), there remains a need in Athabasca for some higher density units and multi-family homes.”
The developer will now go over the slew of comment pages that were handed in and revise their proposal accordingly prior to making their formal request to council for approval. At that time, a date will be set for a public hearing where council will listen to opinions on each side.
