Town council is proceeding with plans to facilitate a three-way land swap on a George Street development site, despite stormwater management concerns raised by neighbours of the former Harriston Senior School property.
On March 7 Minto council received a report from CAO Bill White on the proposed land trade involving Metzger Construction, Quality Homes and the Town of Minto.
Council directed the two companies be advised the town is prepared to accept a triangular-shaped parcel of land from Metzger Construction, at a nominal fee, to increase the size of the town park and pond on the development, currently owned by Metzger construction.
The parcel will be included with lands to be conveyed to Quality Homes as part of the transaction. Council declared the land, less than 0.29 acres in size, as surplus to the needs of the town.
A bylaw concluding the transaction is expected to be on the agenda for consideration at the March 20 council meeting.
White’s report notes Quality Homes will pay all surveying costs and a purchase price of $6,000.
The land swap is intended to facilitate a sale of a portion of the former school property, the site of a planned 23-unit townhouse project, from Metzger Construction to Quality Homes. A conditional offer on the property is currently in place.
The size and location of the stormwater pond/parkland on the development has been the subject of some controversy since June of 2016, when council passed a zoning amendment to allow the townhouse project.
Members of the public raised objections about unit numbers and loss of town-owned open space to be developed behind homes fronting on George Street.
An appeal was filed to the Ontario Municipal Board on July 11, 2016 by Rolf and Kerri Schuttel citing a number of concerns with the rezoning. Minutes of settlement were signed by the Schuttels and ratified by the OMB to allow the development to proceed.
Among the requirements in the minutes of settlement was that no more than 0.29 acres of the town storm pond and park be sold to the developers to accommodate the one-storey townhouse project.
However, recent flooding in that section of Harriston has exacerbated area residents’ concerns about the impact of development on the potential future flooding of existing homes.
The area was hard hit in a massive June 23, 2017 storm that resulted in flood damage in over 100 homes and businesses throughout Harriston, including low lying areas near the former school lands.
On Feb. 20, the area was hit by localized flooding due to combination of a 55mm rainfall, flash snow melt and soil frost.
“This has caused concerns with some residents that development of the subject lands somehow contributed to basement flooding of nearby homes in low lying areas,” White’s report states.
At the March 6 meeting, council received letters from area residents expressing concern about the situation.
“We hope you will take the recent flooding on George Street into consideration before deciding to sell land abutting the flood pond,” states a letter from George Street residents Mac and Joyce Pierce.
“Clearly Minto may need the land to enlarge the present pond since the present drainage system is not working effectively.”
A letter from Rolf and Kerri Schuttel states, “Council is preparing to officially declare land once previously slated as flood retention pond as surplus to sell to be developed.
“We strongly feel that in light of the recent and previous flooding events, the impact on existing and future taxpayers and the general risk of public safety, council should postpone declaring the land surplus until it can be properly investigated that the land is not part of the solution for future flood management and mitigation.”
The Schuttels continued, “Consider the value the land holds to the municipality if increasing the size of the retention pond to the fullest capacity, slows the water draining into the overwhelmed systems and spares the neighbourhood of further future devastation.”
White told council the flooding affecting the George Street area is part of a larger problem.
“These lands are part of the North Ward Drain which was a drain that was established in around 1952. It drains a lot of farmland and drains a good chunk of Harriston and it’s generally designed to a standard that’s much below what happened June 23 and Feb. 20,” White told council on Feb. 7.
Paul Ziegler of Triton Engineering explained that once the Maitland River rises above the drain outlets, the North Ward Drain gets backfilled by river water and ceases to function because it is full.
“It wouldn’t matter if you twinned the drain. You’d just have two pipes full of water,” he suggested.
Zeigler said increased runoff flow rates caused by frozen ground added to the problems during the Feb. 20 flood event.
A written report from Triton indicates the North Ward Drain, along Union Street and its contributing branches (William and George Street intersection) does not have sufficient capacity to convey a five-year flooding event.
The June 23 flood has been called a one in 100-year event, while the Triton report states, “it would be fair to characterize the February 20, 2018 rainfall event, with the addition of snow melt and frozen ground surface, being equal to a 10-year storm event.”
Councillor Jean Anderson said council needs to determine if the development affects flood patterns.
“If the development hadn’t been there, if the development had been finished, would it have changed it? From what I’m hearing I suspect no, because the excess water was coming from the field and it was coming down in different pathways because it was diverted, because there were snowbanks,” said Anderson.
“Realistically, is that development changing the flood pattern at all? Sounds like we’ve got a much bigger problem and that it’s (the development) got nothing to do with it,” she added.
White pointed out the town, along with Wellington County and the Maitland Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA), is planning to host a public meeting to update the public about the June 23 flood on May 29 at 7pm at the Harriston-Minto Community Complex.
The meeting will include presentations from MVCA staff on the causes of the flooding, the reaction of various agencies and plans to mitigate similar flooding in the future.
White encouraged local residents to attend and said information on the more recent flooding may also be available.
Potential solutions
“We’ll have all the experts there to talk about what happened,” said White.
“One of the things that we have to collectively put our mind to, and not just for this site, but for all of Harriston, are potential solutions that would help mitigate things upstream, in-stream and downstream.”
In an email to the Advertiser after the March 7 meeting, George Street resident Ken Porter pointed out that despite plans to proceed with the land transfer “no one is saying conclusively that increasing the capacity of the retention pond is not part of the stormwater solution. Historical surface stormwater flow patterns are no longer the same.”
Porter said discussion at the meeting made it clear, “The parties involved have no idea how to stop flooding in Harriston, but they’re sure the piece of property involved isn’t involved in the nonexistent solution.
“The other fact that became clear was it doesn’t matter how big the ‘pond’ is because the drain used to empty the pond can’t accommodate the flow.”
