What should come first — approving new development or making sure the stormwater system can handle it?
That question surfaced at Niagara-on-the-Lake council as councillors debated lifting a hold on the proposed Tawny Ridge Estates Phase 2 subdivision in St. Davids before ultimately voting to move the project forward during their March 10 meeting.
The development, located north of Chestnut Avenue and south of Warner Road, would include 20 single-detached homes, 24 on-street townhouses and a block reserved for future development.
Town staff say the developer has met the draft plan conditions and the technical requirements needed to remove the holding provision.
“Staff are satisfied with the stormwater management strategy,” said Aimee Alderman, the town’s director of planning, building and development services.
“All divisions of draft plan approval have now been satisfied and the technical requirements necessary to remove the holding provision have been addressed.”
Alderman said that included completing the required studies, signing the necessary agreements and receiving confirmation from relevant agencies and town departments that their conditions had been met.
But councillors hesitated to move the project forward while the town continues to deal with stormwater infrastructure pressures in the area.
“What I don’t understand is — we have a capacity problem now,” said Coun. Sandra O’Connor.
“So why would we lift the holding until we’ve created more capacity?”
Staff said removing the holding symbol allows the town to finalize the subdivision agreement, creating the new building lots so the developer can begin selling land and building homes.
The development will not send more stormwater into the system than the land does today, staff said — stormwater from the site will be collected in larger underground pipes that temporarily hold the water and release it slowly into the stormwater system.
Jordan Frost, the town’s director of public works and infrastructure, said the plan includes larger pipes designed to temporarily store water and release it slowly.
“The size of the pipe, essentially, is a way to control the volume and the flow — or speed — that the stormwater leaves,” Frost said.
“In the same way a stormwater pond would work, we’re going to hold the water in the pipe and slowly release it, to then get to the pond.”
Nonetheless, Coun. Gary Burroughs remained concerned.
“We just spent millions buying land for a stormwater management pond in St. Davids,” Burroughs said. “Is this out of the area that is affected by all the challenges that we are having?”
Frost said the town is aware that “there is a problem that needs to be addressed,” but the development will not increase the amount of stormwater entering the system.
“The new pond or facility we will be designing already accounts for these,” he said. “As well as other flows in the area.”
Before designing the new stormwater management facility, the town will use a municipal class environmental assessment “to study and plan” for where the facility will go “and what it should look like,” Frost said.
The town is expecting a design and constructed solution to be complete in “maybe 12 months, maybe 18 months,” he said.
