MELFORT — The City of Melfort is buying multiple lots of land around the city as part of its effort to increase residential development.
These include 225 Babbington Ave East, 226 Babbington Ave East, 223 Ranson Ave East, 1620 Main Street North, and 1690 Main Street North. The total cost will come to $40,000.
Brent Lutz, Melfort's director of development, planning and community relations said that in the case of the Babbington properties, the city intends to create new residential lots.
“The city is developing a block of new residential lots on the 200 block of Babbington,” Lutz said. “As a result of that, we acquired those properties so we’re able to subdivide that neighbourhood into the size of lots that we’re hoping to make available once the development is complete.”
The zoning is for “R2 medium density housing,” which would require the residential properties to be either single family homes or two unit semi-detached homes.
Lutz said the properties on Ranson Ave East and Main Street North were a part of the negotiations with the private owner of the Babbington properties.
As per the negotiations, the city agreed to also purchase the properties in the northern part of the city.
“In the future if we do plan to expand the city further north that we will have control of the land and be able to make those decisions on a subdivision and stuff without having to seek approval of a private owner.”
The work on Babbington is expected to start this month, with underground services, including water and sewer, set to be completed by the end of the season. Pavement and sidewalks are planned to be installed next summer.
“That’s our typical process, we usually put the underground services in and allow them a season to settle so when we do put the hard services on we don’t have any problems with things sinking or failing after the fact,” he said.
The selling price of the developed residential property will include the cost of the local improvements as well as real-estate.
Lutz expects the lots will likely come on the market before the end of the year and will be ready for people to build on as early as next spring.
