Another step has been taken towards the proposed development of new residential land in Hay River.
On Jan. 25, town council approved first reading of rezoning the land targeted for Fraser Place.
It would change the zoning to single-family residential from institutional. Plus, there would be two small areas going to parks and open spaces from institutional, and two other small areas going to single-family residential from parks and open spaces.
The first reading was accompanied by a planning report on Fraser Place which offered more detail on the proposed development in part of a wooded area sometimes unofficially called the Hay River Nature Park.
Most notably, the planning report envisions 29 single-family residential lots.
The Fraser Place development would be located between the Morin Place/Stewart Drive/McBryan Drive area and the Hay River. At the closest point, the new lots would be approximately 70 metres from the river.
The next step associated with the proposed rezoning and development will be a finance and sales plan presentation to council in the first quarter of this year.
That would be followed in the second quarter by a public hearing on rezoning and preliminary design, detailed design and then tendering.
Sales and construction could begin as early as the third quarter of 2021.
"Before we go too much further with the readings and going into the public hearing, we'd like to come back with a bit of a finance and sales presentation to council just to give a more complete understanding of what the costs are looking like, how we're financing," Glenn Smith, the town's senior administrative officer, told the Jan. 25 online meeting of council.
Smith said, once council is happy with that information, town administration would hold a public hearing on rezoning and preliminary design.
"Once we have our design documents together, we would go through the process of tendering, testing the market to get a firm indication of what the development costs will be," he said. "If that's in alignment with budget and what's been approved by council, we would hope to get into a position of sales."
Coun. Steve Anderson said there has been "some discontent" among community residents about the Fraser Place proposed development.
Mayor Kandis Jameson pointed out the proposal has identified a couple of park areas and tries to maintain the trail system in the wooded area.
"If we can't afford to develop this or something goes sideways, council's direction was still to make this area residential, to do infilling because it is substantially less cost with all the existing infrastructure in place," she said, referring to the nearby residential areas. "But before we do develop, we will be presenting to our residents what that will look like, what the plan looks like."
Jameson said that, when a group of residents appeared before council with their concerns, she made a personal commitment that there would be a full consultation process.
"And I still stand behind that and we will be going out to the residents of this community to ensure that everybody is aware what this is going to look like and what the impact is on the area," she said.
In comments to The Hub, Jameson stressed that the Fraser Place development will strive to preserve the integrity of the area.
"I think green space is what we're looking for to ensure that there is some nice separation between Stewart Drive and the Fraser Place development, and that we retain the trail systems as much as possible through the front of that," she said.
Fraser Place is not going to change the look of the area, she added. "We're going to keep trees, we're going to keep parks and green zones, we're going to try to have as little impact on the area as possible."
The mayor said council will not make a final decision on going ahead with the development until it has solid numbers to consider.
"But it will be developed eventually, that area," she said. "That is the next area to be developed and that's why we're going forward with the rezoning."
The area has been identified for residential development by the Town of Hay River since at least 2005.