Three days of public hearings have been scheduled by the Manitoba Municipal Board (MMB) to hear stakeholder feedback on Niverville’s proposal to annex 2,600 acres of land on the community’s east side.
From January 31 to February 2, MMB representatives will make themselves available at the Community Resource and Recreation Centre (CRRC).
In the weeks prior, the MMB will send out notices to all stakeholders inviting them to make an appointment for these dates if they have concerns or questions which need to be addressed.
During the same time, the various governmental departments and others with a vested interest in the proposal will be given an audience.
Mayor Myron Dyck says that this public hearing is being fully organized by the MMB and is not an initiative of town council.
“The Manitoba Municipal Board will be here and we’re still waiting for the schedule on who’s speaking when,” Dyck says.
Niverville’s town council made the request to annex more land one year ago. The request comes as a result of a unified agreement between Niverville and the RM of Hanover, in whose jurisdiction the land in question now lies.
If approved by the province as proposed, Niverville would more than double in size, consuming a large, mostly agricultural swath of land from the town’s existing east border all the way to Highway 59.
The goal would be to eventually create a commercial corridor running along either or both sides of Highway 311 into Niverville.
Mayor Dyck was not surprised by MMB’s decision to take the proposal to a public hearing. It’s the job of the Department of Agriculture to protect rural land for ag purposes, he says, and they are in the habit of objecting to every annexation proposal in the early stages.
“Annexations still happen, but they would not be doing their job if they didn’t raise concerns any time land use changes from ag to other,” Dyck says. “It’s important to note here that the land [we’re asking to annex] can be farmed forever and will only change if a landowner or ag producer sells to a developer. The landowner controls this, not the Town of Niverville.”
