In the year 2023, if all goes as planned, Niverville will quite literally double in size. A proposed request to annex nearly 2,600 acres of land from the RM of Hanover now sits before the province’s Municipal Board awaiting approval.
The land transfer initiative is a collaboration between Niverville and Hanover, both of whom recognize the mutual benefits that could be gained by such a move.
For Niverville, procuring the additional land is one of the only ways to secure continued residential, commercial, and industrial growth well into the future.
The eventual development of a business corridor that runs along the two-mile stretch from Niverville to Highway 59 could well provide an economic boon for neighbouring Hanover as well.
“We could say no to this whole project,” says Hanover reeve Jim Funk. “But the province might come along and say, ‘Niverville is growing and they need space. You have no choice but to give it up…’ We’re just trying to work together with Niverville so that we can both benefit out of this deal.”
If the application receives provincial approval, Funk says a cost-sharing deal will be worked out between the RM and the town in order to bring water and sewer amenities to the commercial corridor.
How Will Area Landowners Be Affected?
The 50 parcels of land within the annexation area belong to approximately 45 private landowners. In order for the province to look favourably on Niverville’s request, it’s imperative that the affected landowners understand the ramifications of such a land reallocation.
To make the process as seamless as possible, Niverville’s town council hired Urban Systems.
The first task of this team of community planners was to create a sustainable growth strategy for the community in order to help determine how much additional land would be required to maintain the town’s current rate of growth.
Next, Urban Systems engaged the RM of Hanover in the conversation and eventually took it to the local stakeholders for feedback.
On December 7, all of the affected landowners were invited to attend an open house hosted by Jeff Palmer and Aaron Snider of Urban Systems. According to Palmer, attendance was good.
Naturally, most landowners were curious to know how the proposal would impact them directly. The majority of the land in question is currently zoned for agricultural use.
“I think we can say that this is a long-term vision for planning for the growth of Niverville,” Palmer says. “And in the short- to medium-term it will have next to no impact on those landowners in terms of their ability to farm.”
When referring to the long-term picture, Palmer says the community’s land needs for the next 50 to 100 years were considered.
For some in attendance at the open house, the term annexation bore some misunderstanding. Palmer indicates that it’s imperative to recognize that the privately owned land is not being expropriated.
“Annexation is when land is transferred from one municipality to another, in this case from Hanover to Niverville,” says Palmer. “Expropriation is where the municipality takes the land for a public purpose with compensation, but that’s not what we’re talking about here at all.”
When land is annexed, little changes for the affected landowners. They continue to maintain full ownership rights to their land and land use remains the same as before.
Should a landowner decide to sell to a developer in the future, an entirely new process must take place if the land is to be redesignated from agricultural use. This process requires provincial approval for rezoning and a public hearing to allow for community feedback.
“It would be extremely unlikely that the municipality would initiate that process,” Palmer says. “It’s usually done as a result of a willing buyer and a willing seller wanting to change the use of the land.”
The primary short-term impact to the landowners will be the transfer of property taxes to Niverville as opposed to Hanover. To help ease any additional tax burden, Niverville council has worked out a plan whereby landowners would go from no change to their tax rates in the first year to being fully transitioned to Niverville’s rates by year five.
With increased property taxes also comes increased amenities, though. Property owners within the annexation zone can expect to eventually benefit from town services such road maintenance, garbage and recycling collection, and sewer and water hook-ups.
Boomtown
Much research goes into creating a sustainable growth strategy for a community. With Niverville’s rapid growth in past years, it’s especially important to take a close look at Statistics Canada data and other resources to help predict reasonable patterns for the future.
“The actual growth of Niverville has exceeded every [comparable] estimate that I’ve seen so far,” Palmer says.
According to data analyzed by Urban Systems, Niverville has experienced an astounding 343 percent increase in population over the past 25 years. At this rate of growth, the community will have exhausted its current supply of developable land within the next 15 to 20 years.
In another 25 years, it is predicted that Niverville will have a population of almost 30,000 if growth is moderate, or closer to 40,000 if growth continues to climb steeply.
But Palmer says that good municipal planning means far more than just preparing for residential growth.
“We’re trying to diversify the land uses in Niverville and encourage more commercial and industrial development in order to offer jobs within the community,” says Palmer. “There’s a lot of people that live in Niverville that go elsewhere to work. It’s important that there be jobs in the community that people live in.”
What Happens Next?
Along with the landowner open house, Urban Systems is also hosting two public open houses which anyone may attend. The first took place on December 8 and the second will be held at the Heritage Centre on December 13 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Residents are also encouraged to fill out the online land annexation survey by December 22 (see link below).
“It’s the easiest way for us to keep people informed and to reflect their comments to the province,” Palmer says.
Once public engagement efforts are complete, Urban Systems will submit a summary of public feedback to the province and then the wait begins.
At the provincial level, the process is rarely black and white, Palmer says. Oftentimes the Municipal Board makes revision requests and these negotiations tend to slow things down.
According to Luc Lahaie, CAO for the RM of Hanover, a similar annexation request was made in recent years by the City of Steinbach, which was looking to procure land from Hanover in the area just north of the city.
The request was for 7,200 acres, nearly three times as much as Niverville is asking for. The Municipal Board approved the request but only for about half the amount of land.
Generally speaking, Lahaie says the province looks favourably on annexations that support urban growth.
“Whenever an urban community wants to grow, the province will always support the urban area if they have a plan showing the reasons why they need that extra land,” says Lahaie.
This is true even for agriculturally zoned land, he adds, if it’s near an urban centre where services already exist nearby. What is being discouraged is the subdivision and rezoning of ag land in rural areas where it will unnecessarily fragment the farmland.
If and when Niverville’s annexation application is approved by the province, town council will set to work updating their development plan and zoning bylaws in order to take the new land parcel into consideration.
