Saline Creek gets thumbs-up

Saline Creek gets thumbs-up

Posted 3 years ago

A new eco-friendly satellite community near the Fort McMurray Airport that will eventually house 20,000 people took a step closer to reality Tuesday night.

Regional council didn?t address concerns by dozens of residents who appealed for changes to the project, however.

Councillors defeated a motion to eliminate a controversial four-lane road through Waterways and Draper that is aimed at providing alternate access to the new community, now known as Saline Creek.

While they warned administrators that the road should be considered last among the numerous alternatives to access the subdivision, it?s already been judged the best option.

It isn?t the best option for many of the citizens of Waterways, who say they will have to put up with a busy arterial road running along the Clearwater River cutting many residents off from waterfront views.

Waterways residents showed up at Tuesday?s regional council meeting in force to voice their concerns.

One resident was worried that her property value would decrease if she were to have a road running near her yard.

?For a lot of us, this is the major investment of our life,? she said referring to her home in Waterways.

?The road is going to cut us off from green space and turn the area into a slum.?

?With the strike of a pen you are about to harm us all,? she warned council, citing vibrations from traffic on the road cracking the foundations of houses to children with Asthma from breathing in vehicle exhaust in the neighbourhood.

?We?re dealing with quality of life here, there has to be another option,? she said.

While creating the area plan for the Saline Creek subdivision, administration had identified three other options for the placement of the road that did not involve it running downhill and through Waterways.

All three alternatives were deemed unsuitable for economic reasons.

?We may have to go with what?s second best,? said Coun. John Vyboh, meaning the municipality may have to pay more for a second road out of the new community to please the residents of Waterways and Draper.

The new road would be a secondary access. Saline Creek will also be linked to the rest of the city by Highways 69 and 63.

Larry LeMesurier, president of the Waterways Residents Association spoke at the meeting and charged there is a total disregard for the value of waterfront property here.

?In Fort McMurray, waterfront land is considered a waste of space,? he said.

He went on to note that stripping the trees from the hillside in Draper to build a road would probably make the ground unstable and susceptible to landslides and erosion.

?There are several alternatives to this road and we?re not hearing about them,? he said.

Administrators said traffic on this new road, to be called Clearwater Parkway, would be equivalent to traffic on Franklin Avenue.

While approving the plan for Saline Creek as it was drafted by administration, a proposal by the Rotary Club to build a large recreation multiplex in the new community may be on hold, as several members of council, including the mayor, criticized the project?s location on the edge of the urban area.

The club?s proposal for an 18-hole golf course should be able to proceed with existing zoning, council heard.

Mayor Melissa Blake said she?d like to work with the service club to move the project closer to where people live in Fort McMurray.

?As soon as you start to stretch out where things are you?ve lost the community hub that we are trying to build,? said development manager Beth Sanders.

Saline Creek is being designed with a mix of residential buildings placed in a grid, centred around a community hub which will hold everything from grocery stores to schools.

Even though council was against the idea of moving a planned municipal recreation centre to the Rotary land, they supported the idea of handing over the burden of building a recreation centre to the Rotary Club.

The group plans to spend $30 million to $40 million on its project.