WESTLOCK — The developer of a residential subdivision at the Westlock Municipal Airport recently asked Westlock County councillors to be allowed to hold off on the installation of power and gas on their lots until they are sold, which would save money for the developer and potentially the buyers.
Larry Strilchuk attended the committee of the whole meeting on May 14 to make a request on behalf of the Crosswind Landing development.
Strilchuk said they have been working for the last several years on Phase 2 of the residential subdivision, which will consist of seven acreages.
He indicated that most of the physical work is now complete, but there remains one outstanding issue: the installation of utilities on the individual lots.
Initially, Strilchuk said, they planned to only service the lots as they were sold, but that is no longer possible.
The plan now is to bring water into every lot, as that requires the most work. However, they would hold off on installing gas and power until lots are actually purchased.
Strilchuk said they have discussed this with the Wild Rose Rural Electrification Association (REA) and they are in agreement with this plan.
“Some of the power will come from an aerial line at the back of the subdivision, and some of the lots will be serviced by underground power coming from the corner where it intersects with Stage 1,” he said.
While they haven’t had a meeting with the gas supplier, Strilchuk said they are already on the property, having supplied Phase 1 of the development.
Strilchuk indicated that not all the buyers of the lots may want them to be serviced with gas and electricity.
“One of the issues we’ve had all along is that many of the people who have acquired lots out there live in Edmonton,” he said. “They want a place to keep their airplane and they want a weekend place, but they’re not necessarily going to live there year-round."
Those buyers would look to other sources for gas and power, such as using propane, he indicated.
Strilchuk stressed that the lots would not be sold quickly, as Phase 1 of the subdivision consisted of 18 lots and only seven of those have been sold after 15 years.
“We feel that, with the upgrading of the airport scheduled for this summer, there will be an increase in activity,” he wrote in his letter.
Reeve Christine Wiese questioned Strilchuk as to why his letter to council stated the subdivision had originally been zoned as CR3 in 2011 but was rezoned in 2016 back to agriculture.
Noting that it was now back to its original zoning, Strilchuk said that in 2016, there was a movement to invert all acreages back to agricultural zoning.
He believed that their development was accidentally re-zoned, which started a process of getting it changed back.
