Town council has authorized design work on a proposed lift station to allow servicing of additional lots in the Palmerston Industrial Park.
Industrial land in the municipality is fast filling up and the town is fielding expressions of interest in the last remaining serviced land, noted CAO Bill White in an Oct. 17 report to council.
“It is now important that the lift station on Minto Road become a project for consideration in 2018-19,” White stated in a written report.
A lift station, designed to move wastewater from a lower to higher elevation, is needed to service potential lots at the north end of Minto Road, the report explains.
“The lift station will be located so it can be expanded, if needed, to service lands east and west of Minto Road once added to the urban boundary of Palmerston,” the report states.
The report projects that by next spring only a few small lots on the recently-developed Noble Family Road property at the north end of Minto Road and the certified site will be available for development.
“The town has interest in these properties and could bring forward development proposals this fall,” the report states.
“As a result council will need to make an important infrastructure decision sooner than originally anticipated.”
White told the Advertiser the town has had some “tire kickers” on a 14-acre site approved through the province’s Investment Ready: Certified Site program and it’s possible a deal could be finalized this fall.
Asked if any development on the site would be substantial, White pointed out a purchaser would be required to erect a building covering at least 15 per cent of the site.
A certified site is a “shovel-ready” property on which a private investor could safely rely that approvals would be streamlined and available, the report explains.
White told council the land north of the certified site cannot be serviced without the new lift station.
Fortunately, he noted, a Class Environmental Assessment is already in place on the property.
“We can begin the construction when we can afford to do it,” White said.
“The figure being thrown around is a million dollars to do that work, but depending on the timing of some things – we do have interest in our certified site and other properties in the industrial park – council may want to up the timing on that lift station depending on what’s going on.”
The current plan is to begin design on the station, with an eye to beginning construction in late 2018 or early 2019, White told council.
“I think it will open up the whole north end; maybe four, five, six, seven, lots,” the CAO stated.
“It’s another good News story – a lot of industrial development and a lot of work done by our manager of economic development and our chief building official.”
Council received the report and authorized Triton Engineering to begin detailed design on the lift station with a view to bringing the project forward for consideration in the 2018 budget.
