Hart residents not in favour of sewer project

The fourth phase to extend the city’s sanitary sewer system into the Hart Highlands will not happen.

Just like the projects before it, property owners in the area – west to Montgomery Crescent, east to Winslow Drive & Croft Road, and south to Langley and Dundee – voted whether to hook up their plumbing to the city’s sewage system or continue using old septic tanks.

Residents had all of July to vote. The project would go ahead if 53 of the 106 properties petitioned in favour. The city only received 37 votes for.

The project was brought forth by nearby homeowners concerned about the ageing septic tanks. Like most BC municipalities, Prince George won’t pay for sewer systems that aren’t serviced by the City’s Sewer Utility. Projects like phase four are undertaken as “local area service” (LAS) agreements, which are improvement projects paid for by the benefiting property owners. LAS’s are often paid back over a 20-year term.

Having spent decades in the neighbourhood, Councillor Terri McConnachie was shocked this project didn’t pass.

“This is something that we really wanted when I was a resident in that area, so I was just really surprised because I know how old a lot of those septic fields are. They are well past their expiry dates and I think there are people that are going to have issues, there’s no doubt about it.”

Earlier phases have all been met with neighbourhood approval. More than 70% of the homeowners in the Killarney – Wildwood area petitioned in favour of phase three last year.

“I’m disappointed that it didn’t pass and I feel for those folks that were requiring this service but I think more people should have just got out and voted. That was pretty much how it rolled out, in the end, is that that didn’t happen,” says McConnachie.

City staff proposed an alternate idea after property owners on Dunbar Place, Croft Road, and Glengarry Road requested to proceed separately from the rest of the properties. Among these residents, 63% supported the petition. After much discussion Monday night, Council unanimously decided not to support staff’s recommendation.

“This isn’t council mandating that this smaller area of phase four were to go ahead. We really want to make sure that it is initiated by the people who live there, who require the service and who are going to be ultimately paying for it,” she adds

Council expects to shortly be in contact with some of the affected residents who want or need to hook into the city’s sewer system.