Quesnel, B.C.- The City of Quesnel is waiting for an environmental assessment on the West Quesnel Land Stability Program to be completed before finalizing it’s work plan to deal with the shifting subdivision.

 

For the past  several years, about 2100 residents of the Uplands area of West Quesnel have been watching and waiting for a plan as the land on which their homes were built, shifts.  Some cases are worse than others, some haven’t seen any evidence of physical damage, but others have  watched as cracks developed in their basement foundations, and  in the case of Voyageur Elementary school, cracks in the floor and the separation of walls. ( photo at right shows crack in floor of school)

The ground movement is happening at depths between 100 and 300 feet and the movement is 1-3 inches a year. 

Once the   assessment has been completed, the work plan will be  developed and the city will conduct a public information program which will include an open house. 

On the finance side, the City of Quesnel received a grant for $3.14 million to fund the program, with the City adding $1.57 million as its share of the costs.

 

After using approximately $415,000 that is in reserves for the program, Council still needs to fund $1.15 million. Council opted to borrow this amount from City reserves (which saves about $25,000 in interest charges over five years). A five-year temporary borrowing bylaw will be drafted that would see the City pay that money back into reserves. The City will collect $250,000 from general taxation to fund the 2010 payback to reserves.

 

The City will also investigate how to collect taxes for future repayments. Some of the options include general taxation, a parcel tax for those living in the affected area, or a combination of the two.