It could cost city hall almost $300,000 to make design improvements to the Iron Bridge subdivision, an area that residents have expressed concerns about due to ongoing maintenance problems.
Recently, those residents — including their newly formed Iron Bridge Community Association — have told city hall they have problems in their area, such as:
- poor maintenance of parks, particularly grass cutting and weed trimming;
- the presence of foxtail and broadleaf weeds and their spread onto private properties;
- the poor condition of the west and south berms, including weeds and dead trees;
- a gopher infestation on private properties; and
- the poor condition of pathways and roadways, manholes and catch basins, and pathway lights.
These issues made their way to city council’s recent executive committee meeting, where council discussed the problem of having to repair infrastructure in new subdivisions after developers finish there.
Design improvements
The parks department conducted an assessment of design improvements in the Iron Bridge subdivision and provided a list of recommended upgrades:
- West berm upgrades: $68,265
- South berm: $65,490
- West municipal reserve: $65,379
- Central municipal reserve: $38,850
- East municipal reserve: $29,748
Total: $267,732
Council discussion
It’s interesting that the catch basins in Iron Bridge need to be repaired almost eight years after developers built them, that the infrastructure on Maplewood Drive has started to crumble, and that the catch basins on Diefenbaker Drive need replacing even though the municipality has fixed them twice already, Coun. Brian Swanson said.
“The city allows these developments (to happen), and then we sign off on them and assume responsibility,” he continued. “And much too soon, we are spending money to repair them. Whatever we’re doing is adequate in monitoring the work … . It’s an expensive and unnecessary cost to taxpayers. Our policies need to be spruced up.”
When the municipality took over the Iron Bridge subdivision, there was no requirement for the developer to address any deficiencies, which was probably an oversight, parks and recreation director Derek Blais said. However, the department has identified the issues after enough time maintaining that area.
The $267,732 in design upgrades wouldn’t be done all at once, he continued. There are soil quality issues in the subdivision, including alkaline near the playground. Some homeowners have even replaced their lawns due to that issue. So, the parks and rec department will attempt some land upgrades and, if they stick, will expand the program to other areas.
The municipality doesn’t seem to have quality policies for when it takes responsibility for neighbourhoods from developers, which is why these problems happen, Coun. Dawn Luhning said. City hall should have policies so residents don’t have these concerns; councillors received 25 emails from residents of Iron Bridge. She didn’t want to see this happen to them every year.
City hall has had policies in place for the last two years, said city manager Jim Puffalt. In West Park, for example, it refused to take ownership of the subdivision until the developer addressed the deficiencies. That stipulation is in servicing agreements and holds developers accountable.
“Going forward, the beautification of our community is key to our community,” he continued. “… We don’t have a lot of time to spend to go back and repair things that should have been (done) right in the first place.”
Municipal officials have spoken about reviewing work before it’s completed, but that requires additional manpower, said Mayor Fraser Tolmie. Council could pay upfront to ensure the work is done properly, but it sometimes balks at that when creating the budget.
“We never equate it to operational savings … ,” he added. “You can have a policy and it can be written, but if it’s left in the top drawer and not followed up, then it’s just a policy.”
Background
The engineering department reviewed the affected catch basins in Iron Bridge in 2019 and confirmed there are deficiencies to address, a council report said. The three catch basins are considered higher traffic and a priority, as they are at intersections of a sidewalk and the bike paths.
Iron Bridge is composed of municipal reserve lands and environmental reserve lands, so city hall develops maintenance schedules around land use and other factors such as irrigation, the report continued. The maintenance here is at the same level of service as other locations throughout the community. If the municipality falls behind in maintaining this neighbourhood, then it has also fallen behind in other subdivisions.
City hall did fall behind in July in maintaining the west berm due to reseeding issues and excess moisture from rain, the report noted.
A summary of annual maintenance budgets for park spaces shows that Iron Bridge receives $13,856 in support; West Park receives $9,260 in support; Elgin Park gets $7,107 in maintenance; Sunningdale Nature Park gets $13,608 in support; and Spring Creek receives $12,682 in work.
The parks department has created a maintenance plan to address the concerns residents of Iron Bridge have and planned to share the document with the community association during a recent meeting.
The next executive committee meeting is Monday, Aug. 24.
