Our neighbourhood can’t handle any more people.
That’s the message some Parkway Blvd. residents have for the province and city amid plans to expand the nearby Aspen Grove government apartments.
In a letter to city council and MLA Clarence Pettersen, they express concern over sewer capacity, traffic congestion and a lack of outdoor recreation space.
“We feel that it is not in the best interests of the MB Government or the City of Flin Flon,” reads the letter, signed by 15 Parkway residents, “to build extra units in an area where it would be adding more stress to an already over-stressed sewer system and possibly causing more problems / expenses to both levels of government in (the) future.”
In an interview, Pettersen said he has spoken to the city and been assured that the sewer concerns can be handled.
But he still wants to review the construction plan and noted that if city council did not want Aspen Grove expanded, then other sites for public housing would be considered.
“We all want to work together,” Pettersen said.
As The Reminder reported last month, the provincial government plans to add 14 public housing units to the Aspen Grove property.
Construction could begin as early as next summer and would likely take at least several months.
The addition would likely be built on one of the two open green spaces at the Aspen Grove site.
The Parkway residents worry that “the already over-stressed sewer system won’t be able to accommodate the sewer and water from 14 additional families / units.”
“...an overflow already had to be added to handle our present sewer output and this hasn’t even been proven effective or properly tested yet,” read the letter.
Additionally, the neighbourhood “already has HUGE congestion problems during the school year,” read the letter.
“Four times a day parents are either dropping off or picking up children and parking on the Spruce Ave. hill and along Aspen Grove,” the residents wrote. “This is a big safety issue. On more than one occasion we’ve seen people double park and let a child out on the traffic side of the street. Children are always coming from behind parked cars to cross the street. It would be very difficult to handle a further increase in traffic that more units would bring.”
As for building the addition on open space at Aspen Grove, the letter noted that children and parents play in those areas.
“This is their yard and is very well utilized,” the objectors wrote. “They need this important play space.”
The storm sewers in the area are not up to task, the letter added, noting that during the last heavy rainfall water “flowed over the curbs at Aspen Grove and over the sidewalks by the south buildings.”
“At present the sump pumps from Aspen Grove basements frequently pump water from their basements,” the letter read, “out on the edges of the grass yard which leave(s) pooling water there constantly.”
Check line
The residents further requested the city use a camera to check the sewer line on their back street to see if pipe-clogging rocks are a factor in sewer backups.
The Aspen Grove addition would replace the 14 public housing units lost when the government-owned apartments at 4 Hemlock Dr. were abandoned last year.
That came after the province determined that it made no financial sense to repair the moisture-plagued complex.
Plans were previously in place to demolish 4 Hemlock, and that may still happen.
But first the province will consider alternate uses, including a sale or tearing down the building but keeping the land for a potential new housing complex.
Back at the Aspen Grove and Parkway area, massive rains in recent years have caused unexplained sewer backups.
This past summer, 17 victims of sewage back-ups appeared before city council to demand answers – and a solution.
At the time, Mayor George Fontaine said he did not know what was behind the problem but that engineers were working to devise corrective measures.
Coun. Bill Hanson noted that city staff had identified “adjustments” at a water lift station that had a “strong potential” to reduce the risk of backups.
