A lack of affordable and diverse housing options in Beiseker could hinder growth and the Village’s economic viability, according to the mayor.
Mayor Ray Courtman raised concerns of Beiseker becoming stagnated due to the community’s abundance of single-family homes and lack of other options, during the Sept. 8 meeting.
“I think that Beiseker needs more types of housing instead of the single-family dwelling, which of course is most common,” said Courtman.
He said the community is accepting more diverse housing options with residential mobile homes located on Ninth Street between First and Second Avenue, but more options need to be available.
“They are on regular residential lots and I think they look fine,” said Courtman.
“I think they fit into the neighbourhood and I can see in the future us designating other streets elsewhere in the village as mobile home-residential.”
He said, it is important to have a variety of housing like condominiums, townhouses, and mobile homes on private lots.
The village’s latest population is estimated at 828, which is an increase of 1.054 per cent from its 2011 population with a total of 338 private dwellings. There were 260 single-detached homes, 25 movable dwellings, which include mobile homes, and five semi-detached houses. The average price of a single-family dwelling in Beiseker was $221,000 as of the Calgary Real Estate board’s 2014-second quarter report.
In 2013, the mayor met with the new developers of The Grasslands residential housing subdivision in to formalize a development agreement that would see dozens of new houses built in Beiseker.
The Grasslands development is located within the village west of Beiseker off of Highway 72.
Aquilla Homes Ltd. of Irricana and River Street Homes Ltd. are the homebuilders on site.
Phase One will see 71 single-family lots with 17 lots initially available as of May 20.
According to The Grasslands website, some lots are priced as low as $70,000 and for all-inclusive homes; lot and GST prices start as low as $300,000.
Cooperwood Development conceived the housing development, but after the developer fell into bankruptcy, the project was abandoned for about two to three years.
“It was a stalled subdivision,” explained Courtman. “It sat there for at least two years just growing weeds and we were very concerned about this and wanting to see this subdivision continue.”
“We continued to ask all of the people who were helping the developer, we said ‘one of you guys should be able to take over and finish this,’” said Courtman.
The contractor, Metro Pavement, who was working on the project initially, took over the task of getting the development moving again.
“Things are going quite well, we are just about to have some houses go up so that’s what we are looking forward to,” said Aaron Badger, The Grasslands of Beiseker Development Corporation vice president and CFO.
Badger said the development is 100 per cent single-family dwellings.
The development has received lots of positive response since officially opening for sales on May 20, according to Badger.
The development has also sold one home.
“That is about to be constructed and we’ve got four more lots on hold,” he said.
When asked if the new subdivision will help with housing problems in Beiseker, Courtman said, “I’m hoping so, that we can work with our planning people, that they will be able to help us find suitable areas for the other types of homes.”
Courtman said he hopes in the future the municipality will be able to hire designers to help the Village plan for suitable areas and types of housing like condominiums, mobile home residential and modular homes.
“There are all sort of different options now that people can go after for homes,” said Courtman.
Individuals can view updates on The Grasslands subdivision and pre-register online at www.thegrasslands.ca, or call 1-855-463-4023.
