Wells could have a new subdivision down the road.
Mayor Ed Coleman confirms that the District has purchased some private land for the potential project.
“We partnered with the province of B.C. on water improvements, wastewater improvements, and in that process we realized we needed to acquire about 34 acres of land, private land. And the benefit is it helps both our water and waste water projects because we have right-of-ways on the property already, but it also opens the opportunity for a potential subdivision in partnership with planning with Lhtako Dene Nation. So anywhere from 25 to 32 lots, nice lots on a hillside with some sunshine, and most of them will be view lots.”
Coleman says they plan to do it right.
“We have water right above this property so water is not going to be an issue. And that’s just doing it really well, like a good trail system around it for recreation, some viewpoints for the public, all that thinking. We just want to do something really well for the long term.”
Coleman says it’s all part of their Official Community Plan to plan for 1,000 new people over the next three decades.
The population of Wells in the 2021 census was 218, although that doesn’t include tourists that are always in the area over the summer, as well as work camps and contractors.
We asked Coleman about the timelines for development in the District.
“Water phase 1 is done and that is with the federal government and the province. Water phase 2 the drilling is occurring with Osisko Development on some potential new wells that we can use in the future, and that timeline is between 5 and 10 years. But the drill wells we’ll know where they are, then we have to run pipelines from there. The wastewater we’ve almost finished phase 1 which is 5 million dollars worth of work. And then we’ll head on to phase 2 which is another approximately 22 million more of work, but that will get our entire wastewater system, both collection system and treatment system, right up to snuff for the long term for a thousand residents, and same for water”
In terms of a new subdivision, Coleman says a realistic goal “if everything goes well would be around three years.”
