The people have spoken, and two-thirds of Lantzville residents in the Winds neighbourhoods have voted against being connected to the Regional District of Nanaimo's water supply.
Known as the the Winds water service system local service area, the project was being funded partially through an infrastructure grant of about $5.7 million with the remainder, about $3.6 million, funded through the District of Lantzville via property taxation in the neighbourhood.
In a motion passed by council at a meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 11, council instructed staff to work with the province to find alternative uses of the grant following a review of the strategic plan.
"For me, this petition was an example of democracy at work," said Coun. Ian Savage. "Residents had their vote and the majority prevailed. Winds residents had a good long debate about taking advantage of the grant or not, and in the end residents are always right and council is here to serve residents."
Coun. Jonathan Lerner said the next step is communicating with the province on how to proceed.
"No one here knows what the province wants us to do with the money," Lerner said. "So we need to find that out, if the province wants us to find another way to make this possible with water to the Winds, if they want to cover the whole cost or they want us to find some other partner or something, that is something they will let us know. If they decide they want us to go to an alternative project, that is also something they will let us know."
Explained on the District of Lantzville's website, benefits to being hooked up to municipal water, rather than relying entirely on wells, include a reduced risk of contamination due to well failures, improved environmental conditions, improved fire protection and potential for reduced home insurance rates, as well as no longer having the personal responsibility of maintaining an individual well.
But those benefits came at a cost.
In the previous plan, each property owner would either pay a one-time parcel tax, with of maximum principal cost per property of $25,521, or an annual payment of approximately $1,405 for the 30-year term.
Additionally, there was a water connection permit application fee of about $5,900 and an inspection fee of $200, as well as the costs of a contractor selected by the property owner to construct the property connecting line and utility fees.
All homes within the area would have been required to be connected within one year after the line's completion.
Before it could go through, residents of Northwind, Southwind, Westwind and Eastwind Drives had the chance to petition against. Running from July 17 to Aug. 27, if over half of the 141 properties petitioned against it, representing at least half of the approximately $1.35 million assessed value, the project would be cancelled.
In the end, 69 per cent of property owners, with property valued at $89.9 million, petitioned to block the project.
During council discussions, Mayor Mark Swain said that the process was mired by conflict and misinformation, and that messing around with people's money "sometimes brings out the worst in people."
"In my opinion it has happened here. It just fits the bill, and I'm not going to mince my words about it but when you start messing around with, it could be $5, $50, $500 or $50,000 it doesn't matter..." Swain said. "This process has brought out a lot of ugliness, a lot of misinformation and it's really disappointing to see."
