Harbour Grace council says policy on w&s connection fees will stand

By Craig Westcott

Harbour Grace council has had to say no to a resident who enquired about buying a piece of Town-owned land.
Housing committee chairperson, councillor Christina Hearn, didn’t specify the location of the property.
“We will send correspondence to notify the resident that any Town-owned property cannot be sold directly to any individual,” Hearn said. “If a decision gets made to sell the land, for whatever reason, it will be done by council and then it will be put out for public tender.”
Council also had to reject two other requests last month, one from a resident looking for tax relief for a family member who recently died.
Councillor Gordon Stone said the request was considered by the finance committee.
“First of all, on behalf of council, I pass along condolences to the family on the loss of their family member,” Stone said. “In regard to a decision on this, I move that we deny this request as council’s policy has been, and we feel we should maintain, that the taxes associated with the property will stay with the property. That means it’s owed to council, regardless of the details.”
Stone’s motion passed unanimously.
The next request went against a policy in the Town’s development regulations.
“We’ve had a request from Garland Street to provide relief from the cost of attaching water and sewer (connections) to new properties,” Stone said. “We considered that, and I move that we deny the request since our policy always has been, and we feel should stay, that for all new builds the owner is responsible for the cost of hooking up to the Town’s services.”
That motion too passed unanimously.
Council, meanwhile, deferred its decisions on building permit applications for a house on Lady Lake Road and a house and garage at 680 Harvey Street.
Councillor Hearn said the Town’s municipal enforcement officer (MEO) had asked for the deferrals until he gets time to vet them. The applications are expected to come before council again at its next public meeting.
Finally, two complaints have also been passed over to the MEO for investigation. One was from a resident concerned about illegal dumping. Hearn didn’t say where the activity was said to have happened. The second complaint was from a resident irritated by noise. No details were offered on the location of that complaint either. Hearn told council the matters have been passed over to the MEO “to see what’s within our jurisdiction and ability to respond.”
Staff, she added, will write both residents to thank them for raising the issues and to update them on the Town’s actions.