City swaps land with local developer in closed council meeting

Photo: Contributed

A decision made in a closed city council meeting earlier this week will give Nelsonites a little better wildfire protection and parkland, while adding some more lots of residential construction.

The closed meeting — necessary as it related to the city’s financial interests and dealt with emergency preparedness information — gave council the opportunity to “swap” land with developer Sunburst Acres Inc.

According to a city press release on the closed meeting deal, “the land swap will create a public road through the current private lands at the end of Trevor Street” as well as creating parkland.

“This will significantly enhance the community's wildfire resilience, emergency preparedness, and connectivity,” said city communications coordinator Dauna Ditson in the release. “This strategic exchange allows the city to secure a key parcel of land that is important for wildfire mitigation and to create a critical emergency access route at the top of Fairview.

The land swap had been in the works for over one year, with a section of forested area extending from the Great Northern Rail Trail into Nelson being added to the city’s inventory.

Considered one of the highest wildfire risks in Nelson due to its steep slopes, dense coniferous tree cover and potential risk from ember showers, the change in ownership now allows the city to perform fire mitigation on the property and create a new park along the rail trail.

For their part, the developers will receive property between Davies and Trevor streets — and be required to construct an emergency egress road to serve the 114 existing residences in the Trevor Street and Selby Street area — and then subdivide approximately 20 R1 (low-density residential) lots in phases as the roadway is constructed.

The roadway will extend from Trevor Street to Davies Street, with approximately the first half of the new road paved and the remainder built to a gravel standard. The gravel portion is required to be paved as future lots are developed.

“The lands retained by the developer will remain zoned R1 (low density housing) and will include a requirement to include as a minimum a secondary suite or a duplex,” said Ditson.

In addition, the developer will create a new public pedestrian and cycling connection from Trevor Street to Davies Street and to the Great Northern Rail Trail.