Acreage development within town limits?

[blackdog38]

Hi there, I am a new member from Saskatchewan. My wife and I have one rental property and are looking at the possible purchase of an acreage - which is within our town limits but is still private land. I am looking for any information which may help us achieve our goal - or at least to decide whether it is feasible to even go ahead with it and secure the property. What we were hoping to do if we purchased this acreage - a yard plus 38 acres of pasture and bush land, was to subdivide out the yard and develop a few 2-3 acres parcels as well. The present yard site is served with town water but not sewer.



I understand that the Town is fine with the acreage idea, however what I am unfamiliar with is the complexities of the town relationship regarding the setup of utilities, requirements for fire hydrants, etc. to such acreages. I know that when the town adds onto their water and sewer they have done it via engineering companies which of course ends up being very costly (close to $200K in one place for eng and install). Since this may not be cost feasible at least at the start, as I am sure the developer would be responsible for this expense, it makes the decision to purchase very difficult. I am wondering at this point that if these costs and the town requirements prove to be unrealistic, if water wells could be utilized at least for the first couple properties, especially if they are quite distant from the existing piping. To me this seems like a solution which would allow some time to determine the funding required to obtain town services. There is currently no town bylaw in place regarding this, therefore it would probably have to be run through council. There basically are a lot of unknows that could not be determined before securing the property.



Has anyone with experience with this sort of development any information (or can direct where to get) regarding getting started in such a development?



Do towns typically not permit the drilling of water wells within limits?



Thanks very much in advance.

Kevin

 

[ChrisDavies]

Hi Kevin,



A couple thoughts, with a caveat that I don't know that much about the specifics of Saskatchewan.



There will likely be a Municipal Development Plan, which will lay out the intentions and restrictions regarding development, and your potential subdivision. Failing that, most provinces have a template for municipalities, but like you say, if it goes to council, things can get out of hand. If you write an offer is should be conditional on approval for septic fields.



There's a lot riding on the town's future plans and vision for the area. Others might know more, and I'll email a couple friends to see if I can help more.



Cheers,



Chris

 

[blackdog38]

Thanks. What we ended up doing is submitting an offer subject to a clause that we reach an acceptable agreement with the town regarding utilities. We will be meeting with the town council next week, as they do not have a development plan. Unfortunately this could delay decisions, but not much we can do but push for answers by our clause expiry date should the offer be accepted. If the town council is pro-growth, I don't see why something cannot be worked out. I am imagining that a notice will be required in the local paper, indicating that this piece of land is being proposed to be incorporated into the town and its potential zoning and use. Basically what this would amount to is acreage style homes behind existing residential areas. In order to make this more viable, I am also going to recommend a criteria be developed to be followed regarding the purchase and use of such parcels.



In order to leaverage as little capital as possible I am thinking of the option of preselling. Since I am very new to this, I do not know the exact procedure for this, but basically the way I would suspect it to work is that once the land is secured that the "proposed" plots be sold under the pretense that they will be developed as shown. In that manner one can hopefully have less risk while setting out the capital costs.



Kevin