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OTTAWA — Ottawa city council agreed with a request by aggrieved landowners Wednesday to kill a proposed $1.6-million drainage scheme in Goulbourn and pick up the $381,000 tab for the expenses to date.
The landowners had originally petitioned the city to dredge, clear and widen Upper Flowing Creek to increase drainage, many hoping to avoid designation of their lands as “provincially significant wetlands.”
But the landowners balked when the original estimate for the works — about $250,000 — increased to $1.6 million, and the scope of the work expanded from three kilometres to 14.
Normally, petitioners who withdraw a petition for drainage are required to pick up the costs to date, but in this case council sympathized with the landowners, whose costs had spiralled out of control.
Landowners must withdraw their names from the petition by Oct. 6 in order for the city’s offer of payment to go ahead.
Landowners will still be allowed to carry out limited drainage works on their own properties, as long as they obtain the necessary provincial permits and do not negatively affect other properties either upstream or downstream.
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