By Tyler Marr

Frustrations flow at flood plain meeting

Sep 8, 2017 | 12:00 PM

Residents expressed their apprehensions with a proposed one-in-500-year flood plain policy at a public meeting on the subject Wednesday evening, Sept. 6.

The Riverside Public School gymnasium was packed with residents who said property values, insurance coverage and the mere possibility of a flood were top concerns.

The province has required all cities to implement regulations to address a one-in-500-year flood plain. This can come in the form of new building standards and mitigation efforts.

Many in attendance took issue with additional building costs that would accompany any new regulation and the negative impact it may have on their resale value. Affordable housing builders recently called foul on the move, saying it will increase building costs by nearly $30,000 per build. 

“Why can we not rebuild [after a flood]?” one resident called out during the meeting. “[Everywhere else] they can just rebuild, but not Saskatchewan, you just take your people and throw them in the garbage.”

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Discontent was a common theme among residents who said the province was holding the city at bay to implement outdated, unnecessary requirements. Adhering to a one-in-100-year flood line was seen as more reasonable. 

People additionally feared a “ghettoing” of their neighbourhood as the new rules may hinder future school or municipal development. Many also questioned the science behind the plan as it was completed in the 1980s. They wanted the city or province to revisit it as new data could alter policy.

Coun. Don Cody — who has a home and represents many of the 2,000 residents affected by the plain — agreed, saying until “we have the mapping, we should not be proceeding with the bylaw.”

“We need to do the mapping and modelling first before we go ahead and pass a bylaw,” he said which garnered applause.

Cody said the province held a “gun to the city’s head” by threatening to take over the planning department if regulations are not passed. The province has already granted an extension to Prince Albert to implement the rules as they are the last in the province to do so.

Director of Planning and Development Services Craig Guidinger, who fielded a wide array of questions that evening, said he understood people’s concerns but added without policy, no new development could move forward and this was not something they wanted to see. Guidinger said upwards of 30 building permits have been issued in the interim based on the draft rules.

Properties currently in the flood plain are grandfathered in and do not need to adhere to the new rules unless they plan to expand the footprint of the home. Any new development would need to follow to the new regulations.

Guidinger said the regulation consultations would be about finding ways to provide “flexibility and out of the box solutions” to allow reasonable development to go forward. 

Addressing the property value concerns, Guidinger made note realtors have told him in 2014-15, 61 homes sold in the area at $202 per square foot and in 2016-17, 67 homes were purchased at $204 per square foot.

“As of right now, the home pricing hasn’t been affected,” he said. “[But] I can’t predict the future.”

The prospect of a two-metre berm along the river bank has been considered but it would come with a price tag of $11 to 15 million. The city could also spend $1.7 million on sandbags and bladders.

“Mitigation is better over disaster recovery in the long term,” he said, adding his focus is on small scale development. 

“This has to get approved… for us to get to work and for us to look at those policies, implement them the best they can, look for funding mechanisms for new technology and new mapping and develop regulations that work for people and their lifestyles and their constructions projects,” Guidinger later said to the media.

Mayor Greg Dionne said he was pleased with the meeting, adding the city wants to work closely with the public to make things happen. Dionne said implanting the policy was all about “moving the city forward.”

“If you look at the last couple years, we have more federal and provincial funding in this city than we have ever had. Do we want to jeopardize that? No,” he said. He urged the need to pass regulations later this month.

“At the end of the day we have to work with what we have in our tool box and we have to give [city staff] an opportunity and move it forward,” he said.

The second and third reading of the bylaw is set to come before council Sept. 18.

tyler.marr@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JournoMarr