A request to subdivide City of Melville property north of the Water Treatment Plant and consolidate it with the parcel where the SaskWater-owned treatment plant is located, has been approved by City Council.
The request came from Community Planning with the Ministry of Government Relations. The parcel-of-interest is located north of Highway 10, near the golf course, and it features the Water Treatment Plants’ wastewater ponds.
In a report to City Council, the request was originally approved by the City in 2019 but the application expired before it was completed.
Planning Services Manager with the City of Melville, Alex Popoff said in conversations with surveyors handling the file, he heard it was an oversight or error that led to the initial application lapsing.
“I know there was some change in management at SaskWater during this time, so I think it was just somebody didn’t pick up the file in time, and by the time they picked it up the 3 months had expired to register it. Now they want to follow through with it but realized ‘oh, well now its expired, got to go back for subdivision approval from Community Planning.” he added.
For the two parcels to be consolidated, a legally-surveyed road that was never constructed will be closed.
He estimates the road closure will take about 3-6 months to complete, since the Ministry of Highways has to provide a comment on it as well as any other government agency that might comment on the closure.
Once that is done, then ownership will transfer from the City to SaskWater.
“Physically its the same sight, you wouldn’t notice anything unique about it but its just when you look at a survey plan or land title records, you’ll see its actually two parcels,” Popoff said of the process which is largely administrative.
As for the golf course, it will not be affected by this.
“The only reason the golf course was brought up is because that section of land that features the wastewater treatment cells is part of the larger parcel, which is the golf course, so in that sense its actually good that it’ll be subdivided out because everyone would agree that (the) golf course shouldn’t be on the same parcel of land that you’re water treatment facility is.” Popoff said.
(Photo: City of Melville)