Replotting Nelson

Replotting Nelson

A great deal of the professional work in Nelson and region involved making up for the different

practises of the past. In the building up of Nelson, there was an area, laid out in blocks at the turn

of the century, but not fully developed. The roads were basically the extension of existing streets

that connected, lower down, to the central core. The roads butted against the Burlington Northern

Railroad, which was no longer in use when I started working in the area. At that time, there were

still rails in place, and a local developer had acquired most of the blocks. The building sites he

wanted were not desirable. For sound planning reasons, I decided the area should be replotted.

Moving forward with the proposal required us to contact all the owners within the area. There is

a provision in the municipal part of the Land Title Act that if the majority of owners agree to

change the shape of their properties and roads, they can request a bylaw change from the

municipality. One of the owners did not want to be bothered, even though he would benefit from

the changes. He went to city council to see the mayor, who came to see me and asked why I

wanted to get this done.

I wanted to get it done because it fit with my own planning initiatives. The property of the owner

who complained was worth hardly anything as it was. I knew that we could make some decent

lots. The layout that I came up with created a street now named Fort Sheppard Drive and had

about twenty good building sites, virtually all of which are now occupied by substantial houses.

At that time, there was absolutely nothing there.

We went through the whole process of drawing up a proposal and getting it through the bylaw

approval process. I posted the subdivision, which was quite extensive, and got it done. As it

turned out, there was not much demand for the building sites. The parcels of land were kind of

irregular. There were probably five or six parcels or portions of blocks and a few full blocks. But

the streets just ran up the hill, probably ten to twelve city blocks until they terminated at the

railway.

It took a bit of planning to get it right. But we needed the majority consent of the owners of the

parcels. I said, “Well, we can have one dissenting owner. If most of the owners want to proceed,

then the majority rules; this is the democratic way.” The man holding out got railroaded into

participating—reluctantly, but he did so. Moving forward was a complicated process. We had to

list all the properties and owners. Then we listed all the new properties that we would bring in

and identify the owners of these properties. So, this reluctant property owner ended up owning

these new sites.

The planning process involved drafting a new layout for the mass of the land. I created a nice

subdivision that turned out quite well, with long streets running parallel to the railway and on a

steep hillside gradient. Fort Sheppard Drive was something in the order of a thousand feet long.

It was virtually flat. Well, there might have been a two-percent grade; the new road was about

one hundred feet away from the railway right of way.

We created some really nice lots there. But the redevelopment plan did not come up with

municipal funds to build a road. We’d done this replot, but the land was not yet occupiable. The

subdivision was legally created, but it was not yet constructed. The developer could not afford to

build a street and put in the waterline and sewer line. So, he sold the whole project to three

entrepreneurs. They were not really land developers, but they liked the idea and wanted to get

involved. They bought the property; they built the road and street lighting and put in the sewer

line and waterline. The mortgage company wanted to get paid, and the property was sold to

individuals on a lot-by-lot basis. Oddly enough, the lots did not sell very well after they went on

the market. The price should have been up around twenty thousand dollars a piece. The last of

the lots was disposed of for about eight thousand dollars. But then things started to boom in the

area. Lo and behold! Within a few years, virtually all the lots were sold, with substantial houses

built upon them.

It was not a lower cost neighbourhood, and the housing development was middle to high class.

The homes were not built by a single developer but by individual builders contracted by the

owners of the lots. It was a good venture.