CBS submits wish list to allow for more housing construction

By Craig Westcott

One of the last things the previous term of CBS councillors did was submit a wish list to the provincial government for cost-shared capital works projects designed to make the town ready for more housing development.

The list included $4.9 million for a pumping station that is part of an application also being submitted by the City of St. John’s, $3.8 million for water and sewer upgrades, $2.8 million for work on Chamberlains Road, and $3 million for a stormwater system project on Greeleytown Road in Foxtrap, for a total of $14.5 million.
Much of the money would actually come from the federal government, though the application process is administered by the Province. The Town would be on the hook for $3.95 million if it gets approval for all the work, as well as any cost overruns.

“The list of projects that we’ve applied for is strategic, because we have to have the infrastructure in place to support the housing and developers who want to do the housing under the program,” said Mayor Darrin Bent. “We need to make sure that our stormwater is up to snuff in a number of these areas to allow for that development into the future. That’s why we’re not applying for shingles and floorboards, we’re applying for infrastructure to allow for the people to do that work to come in and be able to do it unhindered, to put the housing in, whether it’s apartment buildings or whatever it happens to be.”