"We will be forced to pay up to $100,000 for nothing..."
Sturgeon homeowners subject to mandatory "local improvement" charges.
Susan and Denis Leger don’t even live on Quesnel road. The home they have lived in for 30 years in Sturgeon Falls is on Salter street. In the 1990s when they bought the property and set out to build a home, a similar project as the one on Quesnel was taking place. The Legers paid over $10,000 (approximately $25,000 today adjusted for inflation) to bring water on Salter street. At the time, there were no provincial legislation requiring all property owners to share costs so those who were on wells were exempt.
This obviously added to the Legers start-up costs but they understood that homeowners who already had water should not have to pay for other people’s projects. Still to this day, many residents on Salter rely on functional wells even though there is a city water connection on the street.
But the rules appear to have changed.
The Legers are retired and not looking to develop their property which so happens to back onto Quesnel road and they have never missed a water bill to the municipality.
So they were shocked to find out last week that they will be on the hook for up $100,000 for an additional city water connection they don’t not need or want. The back end of their property accesses Quesnel road for over 400 feet and Susan has been told by her councillor that her share of the mandatory cost to bring water to the street will be approximately $100,000.
Last week, council approved a petition by property owners on Quesnel road to bring water services under “local improvement charges”.
The Local Improvement Act passed in 2009 allows owners to initiate projects by submitting a petition to the municipality. Under the legislation if a petition that represents at least two-thirds of the owners is presented, then council can approve a project and force all affected property owners to pay for the costs rather than the municipality.
Council heard last week that 73% of the 28 properties affected (20 properties) had signed the petition under the Local Improvement Act.
After a lengthy debate led by support from councillors Kris Rivard and Rolly Larabie, council voted to proceed with the latest petition.
The cost to bring water services to Quesnel road is estimated at just over $1M. Staff informed council last week that this will translate to a cost of at least $314 per metre of frontage to each property owner on the street.
These will not be optional charges and will be collected the same way property taxes are. Property owners who refuse to pay risk having their properties seized by the municipality.
Susan says she was approached by one of the organizers of the latest petition to sign but notes that costs were never mentioned. So she wonders if all the 20 landowners were fully aware of what they were signing up for.
Now that council has approved the project, a formal notice is supposed to be sent out whereas affected homeowners will be informed of the projected cost. There will then be a 30 day window when petition signatories will be allowed to remove their name. If the total number of supporters goes below 67% or if council steps in, then the project will not go forward.
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I agree I wonder how many residents who signed that petition actually knew what they were signing up for and that there would be a cost associated to having water run to their home even though they have a fully functioning well from what I’m reading minimal cost is $30,000 per household up to what is being shown in this article of $100,000 for someone who owns larger property that is never going to be developed at this time. People are struggling today to put food on their table clothes on their kids pay their day-to-day expenses, including a mortgage or rent and now you want to turn around and force people to put water to their home when it’s not required. This council needs to shake their head. Are you trying ruin this area? We already have stores that are empty. People are still trying to recover from Covid where basically shut this town down. We lost restaurants we lost pubs. We lost evening entertainment. There is nothing to do in this town now you should be focussing on how you’re bringing people back to this town how you’re going to rebuild this town how you’re going to make this a vibrant community again and not forcing people to run water to their home at a ridiculous cost. You need to pull your name from this petition to stop this from moving forward before people end up having to sell their homes because they’re not gonna be able to afford to pay this ridiculous amount of money.
Sounds more like North Korea them West Nipissing. This woke council has lost it's way in using common sense in making these decisions. You don't own anything and the Govnt. will dictate your life. Forcing some one to pay for some thing they already paid for and already have is beyond ridiculous.