-Province may release grant as long as RDOS areas in process of adopting one-hectare bylaws: Pendergraft-
OSOYOOS TIMES-February 11, 2009-
By Paul EverestrnOsoyoos Times
At a closed meeting on Feb. 2, Osoyoos town council signed off on a payment agreement for the Northwest Sewer Project with the developers of the planned Willow Beach Resort.
Under the infrastructure development agreement, Georgia Laine Developments, the firm behind the resort, will contribute $18.5 million towards the extension of the Town's sewage system and other services to 130 properties on the northwest shore of Osoyoos Lake and the resort.
That contribution breaks down to $14.12 million for the extension of sewage and water services and $4.38 million for fire protection for the area.
Combined with a $4.5 million Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund Grant awarded to the Regional District Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS) from the federal and provincial governments in 2006, the total estimated cost of the sewage project is $23 million.
According to a Town media release, the meeting where the agreement was signed was closed because the agreement included information that would harm the interests of the Town in the negotiation of future development agreements.rnOsoyoos Mayor Stu Wells said the driving reason behind the agreement is the water quality of the lake and the costs of the project would be too great for property owners on the northwest shore without the help of the developers.
The residual for those folk, they could never afford to put in that sewer, he said.
Wells added that there are a number of steps that need to be taken before construction can begin on the project.
Those steps include putting out tenders for firms to build the several-kilometre-long sewer system and the passage of special bylaws that will allow the Town to deliver services outside of its boundaries to the northwest shore and the resort area at the head of the lake.
Council did give first and second reading on Oct. 20 to a motion that would allow for the project to get underway.
There are also several housekeeping issues that the Town, the RDOS and the developers need to address before shovels go in the ground, Wells said.
One of those issues is the transfer of the infrastructure grant from the RDOS to the Town.
Council approved of the transfer in October but the process of getting the grant money from the province to the Town has hit a snag.
The provincial Community Development Ministry won't release the cash until all eight areas of the RDOS have a bylaw in place requiring that properties not hooked up to a sewage system be no smaller than one hectare.
At the moment, only areas A, C and F have such a bylaw and the other areas are in various stages of adopting such a policy.
Area A Director Mark Pendergraft told the Osoyoos Times on Feb. 7, however, that the ministry has stated that if all areas of the RDOS are in the process of putting the one-hectare policy in place, the grant money will be released.
Pendergraft said the grant may be paid out in installments, with the last payment handed over for the sewage project when all RDOS areas have the one-hectare policy in place.
The Willow Beach Resort developers first agreed to take care of any of the sewage project costs not covered by the infrastructure grant in April, 2008.
In a memorandum of understanding with the Town of Osoyoos, it was agreed that the developers would help pay for the project if the resort application was approved by the RDOS and if the Town's sewage system was extended to service the 1,088-unit resort.
The application was given third reading in August, 2008, but final approval was delayed in November at the request of the developers as they wanted to reevaluate their finances.
At this stage we're still working through finance issues given the recession, said Tim Ankenman, the development's chief architect, on Feb. 6.
He added, however, that outlining exactly what the developers will contribute to the sewage project should help speed up the process of securing finances.
This has helped us define our final cost and so now that that's happened we're going to have to go to the market place to seek financing and that will determine whether or not we can proceed imminently with the project, Ankenman said. We see the sewer project being a minimum two-year construction project and we're very hopeful that the market is going to be turned around by then and we're obviously stuck until such time as the sewer is built.rn[email protected]
