Drill rig to test stability of bank at Manuels River

By Craig Westcott/October 28, 2022

The Town of CBS is hiring Stantec Consulting to test the stability of the banks above Manuels River in the area of 30 Flats Road, where an application to build a new house has been held up for the past year.

The “sub surface geotechnical investigation” as the work is described, is valued at $23,370 plus HST. 

“As you’re aware, about a year ago, there was a landslide in that area down towards Manuels River,” Councillor Rex Hillier, who chairs the development committee, reminded his colleagues at last week’s council meeting. “We had a report from the Province indicating there was some concerns about construction along that strip and near the edges of the bank, so we’ve taken it upon ourselves to employ Stantec to do a geotechnical study. They’ll do some core samples and so on just to give us an idea of what’s there and whether or not, or where we should proceed with development along that entire stretch.”

The motion led councillor Josh Barrett to point out the landslide is part of a recurring issue at council in recent years. 

“I just want to say that not a week goes by that we as a council or staff don’t talk about the impacts of climate change here (in CBS),” Barrett said. “This is having a real impact on our community. We’re talking about the budget now and we need to be very prudent with the decisions we make with respect to climate change implications. We have a property that we’re assessing based on research that we got from the Province and this is us doing our due diligence, and I just think it’s important for us to be cognizant of that.”

Mayor Darrin Bent agreed.

“I think this is the proper steps to take,” he said. “We want to do what’s right, but we want to do what’s safe for our residents and we want to make sure that things proceed in a proper manner with all the information that we can get through this process so that things can proceed, if they can, and if not, not.”

Deputy Mayor Andrea Gosse asked if the Town has been given a time frame for the completion of the investigation.

Planning director Corrie Davis said Stantec has advised that it hopes to have a drilling subcontractor in place within the next month or so, and their report following the drilling will come in reasonably quickly.

“I think the issue there is that there are only two drill rigs in the province that are adequate for that job,” said Hillier.

In other development news, council has approved an application for a boat house and wharf on Lawrence Pond, opposite the property at 30-32 Lawrence Pond West, but only on condition that a new house associated with the development is completed as well.

“This is a situation where we’ve got a property owner above the road and he wants to put a boathouse on the pond below the road,” said Hillier. “We’d like to make sure the house is started before the boathouse.”

The Town has accepted the recommendations of a commissioner regarding the proposed rezoning of land at 1287 – 1295 Conception Bay Highway, in Upper Gullies.

“This is a rezoning that we have been working our way through for some time,” Hillier said. 

The commissioner recommended that council approve the application.

“There were some concerns about storm water management, if indeed a development goes ahead there,” Hillier said, “but our engineering department is committed to proper management of that as we go forward.”

Hillier’s committee also recommended that council advertise an application to use five large steel shipping containers, such as you would see on an Oceanex Cargo vessel, as accessory buildings at 40 Redwood Place. The total lot coverage of the shipping containers, also known as sea cans, would be 133.7m². That exceeds the area allowed for accessory buildings on a lot that size, so it’s up to the discretion of council as to whether the proponent can proceed. The public has until 2 p.m. October 31 to provide feedback. Redwood Place is a lane situated near the end of Dunns Hill Road in Foxtrap.

Council’s Naming and Recreation committees also contained items that were somewhat related to development and planning. 

Ward 3 councillor Gerard Tilley, who chairs the Naming committee, asked council to approve the name Nextor Place for a street within a subdivision under construction at 1651 Conception Bay Highway in Seal Cove. Tilley noted the Town checked with the CBS and St. John’s fire departments to make sure there aren’t any other streets with similar names.

And finally, Recreation committee chairperson Shelley Moores said issues that have arisen at the Dannic Place playground in Foxtrap will be addressed in the new Recreation and Culture Master Plan. 

“We’ve had a lot of residents reach out with concerns over this playground,” Moores said. “I can say that Town staff have gone down and visited the playground and garbage has been cleaned up. They took a look to see what graffiti was there and all that’s been sorted. There were some structures that were damaged that have been fixed and there are other issues that obviously we are taking very seriously. But as regards as to what can be done with the playground right now, we’re waiting for the Recreation Master Plan, which we should have in the coming days. As soon as we get that we can make further decisions regarding the playground.”

Dannic Place is located near Frank Roberts Junior High and Queen Elizabeth High on the Foxtrap Access Road.