Rural ditch plan bigger headache than ditch itself
A well-meaning proposal to improve a rural ditch near Richmond has turned into a half-million-dollar headache for the four people who suggested it, their neighbours, and the City of Ottawa.
At the end of the day, either the Goulbourn residents in the area of the Arbuckle drain will be forced to pay $447,561 for improvements that many of them don’t want, or someone – either the original proponents or city taxpayers – will be stuck with a $150,000 bill to cancel the project.
“If we go ahead with this, we’re going to have a lot of upset neighbours,” said Peter Moore, one of the original proponents. “It’s one of those bizarre situations that if it wasn’t happening to you, you couldn’t imagine it was happening.”
In 1996, the four landowners, including Moore, petitioned the city to undertake an engineering report on the possibility of improving the Arbuckle Municipal Drain, essentially a ditch that cuts through farmland to carry runoff into the Jock River.
The cost of the engineering study was originally estimated at $35,000 to $45,000, Moore said. But by 2009, that cost had ballooned to $150,000, due in part to environmental assessments required by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
The engineering report estimates the total cost of the drainage work at $481,713, of which $447,561 would have to be paid by the residents of the drainage basin, and the rest by the city.
“Would you believe, I have 90 acres, I’m all alone, I can’t farm it, and they’re assessing me at $10,000?” said 76-year-old Patricia Monuk, who first heard of the proposed ditchwork when she received an assessment notice and a copy of the engineering report in the mail two weeks ago.
Moore said that now he’s seen the results of the engineering report, he doesn’t want the work to go ahead either. That’s partly because of the cost and partly because the report proposes moving the ditch to a location on his land that is less convenient to him than where it is now.
“There’s no real benefit to us to having it done,” he said. “All we want is for them to clean the bloody ditch.”
However, if he and the other petitioners withdraw their request for the work, they will have to split the $150,000 cost of the suddenly useless engineering report.
If the petitioners do not withdraw their request for the drainage work, city council can either authorize the work to go ahead – raising the ire of residents who must pay for it – or refuse the engineer’s report and pay the $150,000 out of city funds.
City council’s agriculture and rural affairs committee, which considered the matter Thursday, put off a decision by referring certain questions back to the engineering firm for further study.
Rideau-Goulbourn Councillor Glenn Brooks, who moved the deferral, said he hopes an arrangement will be found involving Mattamy Homes, a development company that has bought an option on some of the land involved, and that would benefit from the improved drainage if it chooses to buy and develop the land.
By Kate Jaimet, The Ottawa Citizen