Steinbach City Council · Jan 2022 – Sept 2026 · New neighbourhoods and services
New neighbourhoods: do drainage, sidewalks and parks arrive on time?
When council approves a new subdivision, what must the developer build, and by when: lot grading and drainage, sidewalks and pathways, parks and playgrounds, paved roads? Who checks that it gets done, and what happens when residents say it hasn't been? What about older and fringe areas that still rely on wells, septic tanks, ditches or low-pressure sewer? And how does Steinbach's approach compare with other Manitoba and Canadian cities?
Bottom line
- Steinbach's drainage rules are standard, and they're enforced lot by lot. Every development must hold its rainwater back so it leaves no faster than before. Each development agreement requires a professional lot grading plan before the first building permit, and city staff check rough grades. When residents complained in 2024, staff inspected within about two months, but found the swales built to plan and ordered no fix.
- Sidewalks come later, by design, and the city builds them. The City Manager called not requiring developers to build sidewalks a “targeted and specific strategy”. The city adds them once an area is mostly built out, and only on streets that need them (Wyndham Estate Drive got sidewalks in 2022 and 2026). Calgary and Brandon make developers build sidewalks or pathways as part of the subdivision.
- Playgrounds wait for later phases. In the 153-lot Williams Creek phase approved in August 2026, the developer pays a fee instead of providing a park, and any park “would be in Phase 2”. In Hampton Village the play structure went in only in 2023, about a year after the final phase was approved. Winnipeg's rules have developers build pathways and install or pay toward playgrounds, backed by financial security.
- Council doesn't see the development agreements. It approves subdivisions “subject to a development agreement” that staff negotiate. It has declined to add conditions at hearings, including a proposed sidewalk condition in April 2026. Brandon publishes each subdivision's conditions, including a 15% letter of credit.
- Older and fringe areas mostly pay for their own catch-up. Clear Spring Greens still has ditches, low-pressure sewer and septic tanks, and homes on Creekside Drive are on wells. The 2025 Official Community Plan rules out private wells for new buildings that can connect to city water. Older areas have paid for upgrades themselves through local improvement levies (Clear Spring Greens pathway, a McKenzie Avenue sidewalk).
Related reports: Sewer backups (basement flooding, sump pumps and the Clear Spring Greens sewer reroute), Quality of life (green space citywide), Housing and development (development fees and who pays for growth) and Traffic congestion.
Part 1 · The council record
What developers must do
Council approves nearly every subdivision and rezoning “subject to the execution of a development agreement”. Staff then negotiate the agreement with the developer. Its terms are not published with the council agenda or minutes. The City Manager read the standard drainage clause aloud in July 2026:
“Further, that the owner will be responsible to ensure that drainage in the immediate area of these lots functions properly and that a professionally prepared lot grading plan will be submitted and approved by the city prior to the issuance of the first building permit. These are standard requirements.”
Troy Warkentin, City Manager · Jul 21, 2026 · 0:44:00
“any new developments must control its runoff water so that its contribution to the city's land drainage system is not greater than its pre-development conditions. So something that's done in principle that's written in here as well.”
Councillor Damian Penner, on the Official Community Plan update · Dec 3, 2024 · 0:18:59
“A lot grading plan means they need to manage the water on their own site, basically.”
Councillor Jac Siemens · Jun 20, 2023 · 0:15:57
The city's published standards fill in some of the detail. Lot grading plans for new residential areas began in the 1990s. The owner gets the plan with the building permit, and city staff measure the rough grade at critical points, which must be within 25 mm (1 inch) of the plan to pass. Re-inspections cost $100, taken from a refundable grading deposit. The deposit was set at $500 for residential projects in 2020, and the current amount isn't published online (City of Steinbach; SteinbachOnline). The design standards size storm pipes for a 1-in-2-year rain, require a second road access once a development reaches 120 units, and call for sidewalks on both sides of collector streets (Standard Design and Construction Specifications, 2024). They don't say when sidewalks must be built, or by whom.
The Williams Creek hearing, August 2026
The clearest public test came on August 4, 2026, when council heard a 153-lot first phase of Williams Creek, south of Loewen Boulevard. Neighbours in Wyndham Estates and Ash Grove Lane asked what would arrive first.
“Drainage is number one, has not been dealt with. I'd like to see drainage before anything proposed proceeds, because if we can't do the drainage, where's the water going to go?”
G.W., resident, Wyndham Estate Drive, a retired land developer · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:16:04
“And it needs to be done because you need walkways right away, not later. You need them now. I know in Wyndham, we just put some in and everything had to be dug up, everything had to be resodded at our taxpayers' expense.”
G.W., resident · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:17:13
“Playgrounds should be installed immediately so that when people are moving in, they can enjoy them immediately.”
G.W., resident · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:17:54
“I didn't have a problem until Wyndham started. Once Wyndham started, we had a problem. And now they've got a problem on Wyndham as well.”
S.B., resident, Ash Grove Lane · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:38:44
The developer's president, M.J. of William's Creek Development Inc., said a 30-foot concrete-bottomed drainage swale would carry water away along the back of the neighbours' lots, and that the drainage was engineered and reviewed by the city engineer. Asked about concrete driveways and construction traffic, he said both were the city's to require:
“So normally, if the city wants concrete driveways, it will be part of the development agreement saying that You have to if you buy the lot.”
M.J., applicant, William's Creek Development Inc. · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:29:07
“the city can say we want the construction vehicles to come through on Williams Creek Way… And it often happens where the RM, in my experience, or city will dictate where they want the construction traffic to go.”
M.J., applicant · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:30:14
When G.W. asked to see the engineered drainage drawings before approval, the mayor said they weren't available yet:
“Well, without a development agreement, we wouldn't have those at this point, do you?”
Resident: “The drainage has to be done before.”
“council doesn't get involved in the development agreement.”
Mayor Earl Funk · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:42:52
“Is everything perfect? No, it's not perfect right now, but we're moving into a better space.”
Mayor Earl Funk, on the city's drainage plans, before the vote · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:54:47
Council gave the rezoning second reading and approved the subdivision unanimously (R26-156, R26-157), both subject to a development agreement. The concrete-bottom swale, construction access from Loewen Boulevard and improvements to Loewen were described as matters still being settled in that agreement; the City Manager said Loewen improvements are “a continuing process through the development agreement completion” (0:59:09). No condition on sidewalk or playground timing was added. The neighbours' existing drainage problems on Wyndham Estate Drive and Ash Grove Lane were not part of the decision. S.B. told council “nobody has a solution. They tell me raise my garage” (0:37:15).
Sidewalks and pathways
“Well, sidewalks are usually put in after the, um, the development is full, 80% plus full, probably fuller. So the sidewalks are put in afterwards so that they're not damaged by the construction and the bigger vehicles.”
Mayor Earl Funk, answering a Williams Creek neighbour · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:13:36
“However, as a matter of practice, sidewalks are generally not required by developers at time of development of subdivision, and that is a targeted and specific strategy of the city. However, that then is something that the City of Steinbach proceeds to install at a later date in and on streets that are appropriate for the needs and the uses that are occurring in the neighborhood.”
Troy Warkentin, City Manager, on a Park Hill rezoning · Dec 16, 2025 · 0:14:34
“So I do believe that When we have a mechanism in which when a development gets to a certain build-out, that's when it's triggered and we build sidewalks there.”
Mayor Earl Funk · Dec 16, 2025 · 0:17:58
In April 2026, at the hearing for 48 apartments on McKenzie Avenue, a councillor tried to make a sidewalk part of the deal:
“So a friendly amendment I'm requesting is that they also add sidewalk construction to the development agreement.”
Councillor Jac Siemens · Apr 7, 2026 · 1:29:11
“I share that concern as well. However, I also am not an engineer, and to put that into development agreement when it might not be feasible or be appropriate it is not something that I want to put into an amendment.”
Councillor Damian Penner, the mover, declining the amendment · Apr 7, 2026 · 1:30:42
The City Manager said such a condition was possible but should be made “a condition of approval rather than in the development agreement” (1:31:06). No condition was added, and the rezoning passed unanimously. A neighbour asked who would pay:
“And if the sidewalk is put in place, a public sidewalk, who's paying for it? Or do we have to pay for that? Or is it going to be a developer responsibility? That's important because we all paid for the one on the north side as a local improvement.”
P.K., resident, McKenzie Avenue · Apr 7, 2026 · 0:40:04
The city has followed through in Wyndham Estates, years after homes went in. Its 2022 capital works program included sidewalks on Brandt Street, McKenzie Avenue and Wyndham Estates (Mar 1, 2022). In 2025 a sidewalk went in on Parkland Drive to the new school. The 2026 program adds “320 meters of new sidewalk on Wyndham Estate Drive between Winston Place and Preston Place” and a 65-metre link to Deerfield Trail (Mar 3, 2026). These are paid from city operating funds and reserves and the federal gas tax. G.W.'s complaint was about this pattern: digging up and re-sodding finished yards to add sidewalks later.
Parks and playgrounds
“There will not be a discussion with respect to putting a playground in this particular area. These 153 lots are, are set under this plan. Okay. If there were to be a park, it would be in Phase 2 on the east side of the Manning Canal, and that the city would dictate at the time we go to develop Phase 2.”
M.J., applicant, after saying the first phase would pay a dedication fee in place of park land · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:33:01
“So maybe when we look at approving phase 1, we look to incorporate a portion of all the things the developer is promising so that it's not left to the end when all the money is gone.”
J.C., resident, Loewen Boulevard, after noting “zero green space” in a first phase · Sept 6, 2022 · 1:08:29
Hampton Village shows the usual timeline. Asked in 2023 whether its park was in use, the City Manager said:
“The picnic shelter structure was installed late last summer. My understanding is that the play structure that is also intended for the site, that installation for that began this spring.”
Troy Warkentin, City Manager · Jun 20, 2023 · 0:27:20
“This has been an issue that's been before council for a couple of years now. She has also done her due diligence and she's done work on getting the park in that area”
Councillor Jake Hiebert, crediting a resident · Jun 20, 2023 · 0:30:49
Council approved the final phase of Hampton Village in 2022, so the play structure arrived around the time the neighbourhood was finished. Developers must provide park land or pay a fee in lieu, as the Williams Creek applicant described it, and the city planner decides whether a phase gets a park. The record shows no rule on when a playground must be built. How much green space the city has overall is covered in the Quality of life report.
Paving, dust and construction traffic
In 2022, residents of older homes along unpaved stretches of Loewen Boulevard asked council what the new subdivisions next to them would bring.
“Dust is a major issue for us… All summer it was actually pretty bad. I could write my name in the windshield every morning.”
J.C., resident, Loewen Boulevard · Sept 6, 2022 · 0:24:34
“And some of these things take time because as development comes, we let the development happen and then we can work on the road system.”
Mayor Earl Funk · Sept 6, 2022 · 0:24:23
“Construction traffic, we had a lot of complaints when Wyndham Estate Drive was expanded. We had a lot of complaints over construction vehicles coming through.”
Councillor Jac Siemens, supporting the Williams Creek plan's new exit to Loewen Boulevard · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:53:22
The applicant for the 2022 subdivision at Old Tom Road and Loewen Boulevard said the project would bring “upgrades to Lowen Boulevard, inclusive of curbing, paving, sidewalks” along its frontage (Sept 6, 2022). In 2026, a resident asked whether Loewen and Hirschfeld would now be paved; the answer was that conditions were still being worked out in the Williams Creek agreement. Construction routing has been handled by argument at each hearing rather than as a written approval condition. In January 2024, a Creekside Drive resident said dust was so bad “when the city was filling up that lot” that “I couldn't let them play outside” (Jan 16, 2024). Traffic volumes and safety are covered in the Traffic congestion report.
Older and fringe areas
“everybody on our street is on wells. All our wells are close to the backyard, which is close to the ditch, which all the runoff water goes into, which is very close to our wells. The city used to dump their snow dump there.”
G.P., resident, Creekside Drive, objecting to a truck yard next door (denied) · Jan 16, 2024 · 0:58:45
“I also believe Steinbach has at times planned for growth before ensuring the necessary infrastructure was in place. Clear Spring Greens is one example. It is an area that will eventually be surrounded by the city Yet it still relies on ditches, low-pressure sewer systems, and septic tanks.”
D.J., resident, Granite Park · Jul 21, 2026 · 0:15:08
“We added a policy that prohibits the use of private wells for buildings that are connected to or have the potential to connect to the municipal water system.”
Kari Schulz, WSP, the city's planning consultant, presenting the Official Community Plan update · Apr 1, 2025 · 0:21:06
“that would have predated development plans that would have predated drainage plans, and that's that. But now as we're developing, we're improving those drainage plans.”
Mayor Earl Funk, on why an older street floods · Sept 1, 2026 · 0:21:12
When a resident near Avondale asked whether the new rules would affect private wells, the city planner said the policy “is part of the official community plan. It is not part of the zoning bylaw” (Apr 1, 2025). The policy covers new development; no plan or timeline for bringing city water or gravity sewer to existing well and septic areas came up in any meeting. Upgrades in these areas have mostly been paid by the residents who benefit. Clear Spring Greens owners paid for their pathway as a local improvement, and “60 of the properties prepaid” their share (Feb 15, 2022). The city has since spent about $30,000 on drainage in Clear Spring Greens and is rerouting its low-pressure sewer line. That reroute is covered in the Sewer backups report.
Follow-through
Dated actions on services in new and fringe neighbourhoods, and on drainage complaints, from council records:
| Date | Action |
|---|---|
| Feb 15, 2022 | Clear Spring Greens pathway (built 2021) financed as a local improvement paid by area owners; $136,850 borrowed. |
| Mar 1, 2022 | 2022 capital works awarded ($2.08M), including sidewalks on Brandt Street, McKenzie Avenue and in Wyndham Estates. |
| Sept 6, 2022 | Old Tom Road and Loewen Boulevard subdivision approved unanimously, subject to a development agreement. Residents' dust, drainage and green-space concerns were heard; no conditions were added. |
| Jun 20, 2023 | Hampton Village: play structure installation under way, about a year after the final phase was approved. |
| May 21 – Jul 16, 2024 | Standing-water complaints on Chrysler Gate and Harmony Lane referred to staff. Staff reported back that the swales were “built according to what was spec'd” and expected the issues to “resolve themselves” as the ground dried. The report was received as information. |
| Apr 1, 2025 | Official Community Plan update heard: runoff must not exceed pre-development levels, and no private wells where city water is available. |
| 2025 | Parkland Drive sidewalk built to the new school (reported Dec 16, 2025). |
| Oct – Nov 2025 | M.N., whose building is beside a creek off Keating Road, asked council to clear it of brush and debris (Oct 21, 2025). The city reports cleaning out the Keating Drain from PTH 52 West to Park Road West, about $30,000, by November (reported Mar 17, 2026). Whether this is the same channel wasn't stated. |
| Mar 3, 2026 | 2026 capital works awarded ($1.38M), including 320 m of new sidewalk on Wyndham Estate Drive. |
| Mar 17, 2026 | A review of the city's lot grading policy and a drainage master plan listed as projects that “could be looked at in the future” (0:25:15). |
| Apr 7, 2026 | A sidewalk condition for the McKenzie Avenue apartments proposed and not adopted. |
| Jul 21, 2026 | Clear Spring Greens low-pressure sewer reroute awarded ($396,500). An Albert Street resident said a back lane promised to be graded when nearby apartments were built never was; no answer is on the record. |
| Aug 4, 2026 | Williams Creek phase 1 (153 lots) approved unanimously, subject to a development agreement. Land Drainage By-law 2274 passed, adding property inspections and fines. |
“And when they put up those 3 apartments on Maplewood, we were promised that that back lane would be graded, and not a thing has been done.”
B.K., resident, Albert Street · Jul 21, 2026 · 0:14:30
Their reasons for not doing more
1Sidewalks built early get damaged by construction
“My understanding is that it's pretty standard practice in the city that we always have sidewalks that are planned, but they don't go in right away. It's just a matter because of the fact that it goes in after most of the development has happened.”
Councillor Michael Zwaagstra · Dec 16, 2025 · 0:13:25
Damage during construction is a real cost. Calgary deals with it by having the developer build the sidewalks and repair them before the city accepts them, backed by security (Finding 2). In Steinbach the first residents live without sidewalks for years, and taxpayers pay to add them later. G.W., who has developed land in other cities, said they were required “immediately by the developer” there.
2Not every street needs a sidewalk
“We don't put a sidewalk in every single street. We put them where it makes sense to do so.”
Councillor Michael Zwaagstra · Dec 16, 2025 · 0:17:16
“It's very common for bays and crescents, et cetera, not to have sidewalks in them. So to make that commitment doesn't seem consistent with how we generally operate.”
Councillor Susan Penner · Dec 16, 2025 · 0:17:33
This matches the city's own design standard, which requires sidewalks only on collector and arterial streets, and on local streets near schools, apartments and parks. The residents' complaints were about streets like Wyndham Estate Drive, where sidewalks were eventually built, and about the gap until then.
3Drainage is for engineers and the development agreement, not council
“So technically right now, we can't comment to drainage because that will be dealt with through a development agreement that will be drawn up between developer and our engineer and our city planner, okay?”
Mayor Earl Funk · Dec 16, 2025 · 0:38:47
“I have a lot of faith in our engineering department, and I think we, through the development plan I think we can move the water, and it has to be done. And council also doesn't know the ins and outs of all the different drainage, but we do direct staff.”
Councillor Jac Siemens · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:53:22
Residents keep asking to see the plans before council votes. M.R. said developers' studies “may be sufficient to the city but may not be sufficient to the neighbors” (Jul 21, 2026). Brandon attaches a list of development-agreement conditions to each subdivision report, so council and the public see them before the vote (Finding 1).
4No new rules at the hearing
“So I'm not going to, on an ad hoc basis, add things that go beyond what the zoning bylaw is.”
Councillor Michael Zwaagstra, moving approval of Williams Creek · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:49:43
“So a lot of these concerns that were brought forward, I agree with, are concerns that need to be discussed, whether they should go into zoning bylaw or not. or into a development plan, but they need to be done at that stage. It'd be very hard for city council to make those, those changes here.”
Councillor Jac Siemens · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:52:24
Fairness to applicants is a fair point: rules should be known in advance. But it means the fix has to come in the standards themselves, and the city's standards say nothing about when sidewalks, pathways or playgrounds must be built. Siemens invited G.W. to speak at the next zoning or development review. The new zoning by-law (2026) and the lot grading policy review are those chances.
5Development happens at the market's pace
“You can never put a timeline on development because you develop as there's need.”
Mayor Earl Funk, asked when a second phase would come · Sept 6, 2022 · 1:12:14
“In terms of phasing, I mean, you have to phase in what makes sense, what's efficient.”
Councillor Susan Penner · Sept 6, 2022 · 1:14:53
Tying parks and paths to later phases means the first buyers may wait years, or forever if a later phase stalls. Winnipeg's guidelines ask for parks to be planned “concurrent with entire subdivision” and secured in the agreement, whatever the phasing.
6Many drainage problems are on private lots
“we've had some really bad drainage things that have happened and it hasn't happened that it was engineered wrong. It was people come in and landscape, they over-landscape and then they impede water from running.”
Mayor Earl Funk · Sept 6, 2022 · 0:57:13
“I think it's more or less obviously isolated on your properties. And that will have to be dealt with. I'm not the engineer that's going to figure that out for you.”
Mayor Earl Funk, to S.B. · Aug 4, 2026 · 0:39:17
The city's drainage-complaint process puts the first steps on the owner. Staff investigate private-lot drainage only for “stagnant water”, defined as a pond more than two inches deep that lasts more than 36 hours after the rain. The owner must then install grade stakes before staff inspect (City flow chart, June 2025). That threshold screens out the problems S.B. and G.W. described: water passing from new lots into older yards during storms. Records are also incomplete for older lots: in 2023 a councillor noted the city had no lot grading plan on file for one property: “Apparently we don't have it in stock or in our records” (Jun 20, 2023).
Part 2 · How Steinbach compares
Scorecard
How Steinbach's handling of new-neighbourhood services compares with published rules in other Manitoba and Canadian cities.
Strong ahead of or matching good practice On par typical practice Partial started, with gaps Gap common elsewhere, not done here
| Measure | Steinbach | What others do | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lot grading plans and checks | Professional plan before the first building permit; city checks rough grade to ±25 mm; refundable deposit ($500 in 2020). | Winnipeg: permit, $2,700 deposit per lot, surveyor certifies grades. Lethbridge: surveyor or engineer certificate within 12 months. Brandon and Portage la Prairie: deposit refunded after grades are verified. | On par |
| Holding back rainwater | New development may not increase runoff (Official Community Plan). Commercial sites are capped at a 2-year storm, with storage sized for a 25-year storm; no published storage standard for residential subdivisions. | Brandon's 2025 conditions: store a 1-in-100-year storm and release no faster than a 1-in-5-year pre-development rate. | Partial |
| Sidewalks and pathways in new subdivisions | Developers generally not required; city adds them later on streets that need them. | Calgary: developer builds all sidewalks at its own cost. Brandon: developer builds sidewalk and multi-use path with the road. | Gap |
| Parks and playgrounds | Land or fee in lieu; park location decided by planning; no rule on when a playground is built. | Winnipeg: developer grades, plants, builds main pathways and installs or pays toward playgrounds, with security. Brandon: 10% usable green space. | Partial |
| Openness of development agreements | Council approves “subject to a development agreement”; terms and securities not published. | Brandon lists every condition, including a 15% letter of credit, in the report council votes on. | Gap |
| Construction access and phasing | Second access required at 120 units; Williams Creek gets a construction route off Loewen Boulevard, settled in the agreement. | Brandon writes emergency access and temporary turnarounds into published conditions. | On par |
| Responding to drainage complaints | Staff inspect and report (2024); Keating Drain cleared (2025). The private-lot threshold is narrow, and some complaints have no recorded answer. The lot grading policy review is not yet scheduled. | Typical practice is complaint-driven inspection against the approved grading plan. | Partial |
| Older and fringe areas | Ban on new private wells where city water is available; Clear Spring Greens sewer reroute under way. Other upgrades are paid for by residents through local improvements, with no published servicing plan. | Local improvement levies are common across Manitoba; no peer servicing plan for areas like these was found to compare. | Partial |
Key findings
1The rules are mostly sound; nobody outside City Hall can check them
Steinbach's lot grading and runoff rules are in line with other Manitoba cities. What sets it apart is that the development agreement, the document that says what each developer must build, is negotiated by staff after council votes. Council says it doesn't get involved (Reason 3). Residents at hearings ask about drainage drawings, sidewalks, playgrounds, driveways and construction routes, and are told those will be in an agreement they can't see. Brandon's Development Review Group sends council a numbered list of conditions with each subdivision. For one 2025 subdivision this covered road and path construction, stormwater storage, tree contributions, green space, the mailbox location and a letter of credit for 15% of the work's cost (Brandon DRG report).
2Sidewalks-later is a choice peers don't make
The city calls its sidewalk approach a deliberate strategy (Reasons 1 and 2). Calgary's master development agreement has the developer build “all sidewalks, curbs and gutters” at its own cost. The city accepts them only after inspection, and holds security until then (Calgary, 2015). Brandon's 2025 conditions required a multi-use path on one side and a sidewalk on the other as the road was built. Steinbach's approach saves developers money and avoids construction damage, but the cost shifts to taxpayers later, and the first residents walk on the road in the meantime.
3Parks follow the phases, so the first residents wait
Winnipeg's Park Development Guidelines (November 2025) allow the development agreement to require the developer to “grade, level and vegetate” park land, “construct primary pathways” and “install or pay a share of, core amenities (e.g. playground, picnic area…)”, backed by security (Winnipeg). No peer we found sets a fixed deadline, such as a playground at a set share of homes built, but securing the work in the agreement means it can't quietly slip to a later phase. In Steinbach, a Williams Creek park depends on Phase 2 (Reason 5). In 2024 Niverville got a full-sized playground donated by a local developer in an area still under construction (Niverville). That was a gift, not a rule.
4Complaints get inspected, but the burden falls on homeowners
The city does respond. It reported back on the 2024 Chrysler Gate complaints within about two months, and cleaned out the Keating Drain in fall 2025. But the process asks the homeowner to prove the problem: water more than two inches deep for more than 36 hours, then grade stakes before an inspection (Reason 6). It does not look at whether a new development next door changed how water moves. A review of the lot grading policy has been raised but not scheduled. The climate risk assessment the mayor promised would give “a roadmap of projects that can be done to alleviate some of our drainage” (Sept 16, 2025) arrived in August 2026 and had not been adopted (see Sewer backups).
5Fringe areas catch up mostly at their own expense
Clear Spring Greens and the Creekside Drive area still lack services that newer neighbourhoods take for granted. The 2025 plan stops new private wells where city water is available, but no plan or timeline for bringing water or gravity sewer to existing well and septic areas came up in any meeting. Improvements so far have been resident-funded local improvements, plus a council-initiated sewer reroute.
Peer programs
| Municipality | Lot grading | Sidewalks, paths, parks | Security and openness |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brandon, MB | Separate lot grading permit; a surveyed record plan is required before final inspection and deposit refund | Developer builds sidewalk and multi-use path with the road; 10% usable green space (2025 example) | Letter of credit for 15% of the work's cost; conditions published with the subdivision report |
| Winnipeg, MB | $205 permit and $2,700 deposit per lot; rough grading within 12 months; surveyor certifies | Developer may be required to build main park pathways and install or pay toward playgrounds | Security required for all development-agreement obligations |
| Portage la Prairie, MB | City sets elevations with the permit; staff check before footings and after grading; deposit refunded if grades conform | Not found | Not found |
| Niverville, MB | Not confirmed | A developer donated a full-sized playground (2024) | Subdivisions approved subject to development agreements |
| Calgary, AB | — | Developer builds all sidewalks, curbs and gutters at its own cost | Security of 50–100% of costs for larger developers (2015 agreement) |
| Lethbridge, AB | Lot grading application with the building permit; surveyor or engineer certificate within 12 months of final inspection | — | — |
| Steinbach, MB | Plan before first building permit; city checks rough grade; deposit | Sidewalks added by the city after build-out; park land or fee; playground timing not set | Agreement terms and securities not published |
What “doing all it can” would add
- Publish the conditions before the vote. Attach the main development-agreement terms, including drainage, sidewalks, paths, park timing, paving, construction routes and securities, to the subdivision report, as Brandon does.
- Have developers build or secure sidewalks and paths on collector streets and school routes at the time of subdivision, as Calgary and Brandon do, instead of the city adding them after build-out.
- Put playground timing in the agreement: built, or paid for with security, in the phase that creates the demand, following Winnipeg's guidelines.
- Finish the lot grading policy review. It could add surveyor-certified final grades (Winnipeg, Lethbridge), publish the deposit amount, and check whether new subdivisions change drainage for older lots next door.
- Close the loop on open complaints: Wyndham Estate Drive and Ash Grove Lane drainage, and the Albert Street back lane. A simple public log of complaints and outcomes would show follow-through.
- Write a servicing plan for fringe areas (Clear Spring Greens, Creekside Drive) with options, costs and who pays for water, sewer and drainage.
- Make construction routes a written condition of approval, not a hope expressed at the hearing.
About this page
- Transcripts. Quotes come from automatic transcripts of the official meeting videos and keep their wording, including transcription errors (“city Yet”, “Lowen” for Loewen). Ellipses mark trimmed text. Each quote links to its moment in the video; check there before quoting it elsewhere.
- Speakers. Speakers were identified from how they are addressed in each meeting. Every quote here is from a speaker identified with high confidence. Turns in clusters that merge the two Councillors Hiebert, or several members of the public, were not used. One Hampton Village quote is attributed to the City Manager from context, in a voice cluster the speaker map flags as shared with members of the public.
- Names. Council members, the mayor, city staff and the city's planning consultant are named in full. Residents, applicants and other members of the public are identified only by initials. That includes M.J., the developer who applied for Williams Creek. Two different residents in these records share the initials G.W.; every G.W. quote here is from the August 4, 2026 speaker. Companies are named.
- Coverage. All 103 regular council meetings from January 2022 to September 15, 2026 were searched for drainage, lot grading, sidewalks, pathways, playgrounds, development agreements, paving, dust, wells, septic and low-pressure sewer, and the relevant passages were read in full. Decisions were checked against the minutes. The development agreements themselves are not public, so what they require is known only from what was said at meetings.
- Unverified. Steinbach's current grading deposit amount (it was $500 in 2020) and its park dedication rate were not confirmed. Brandon's deposit amount was not found. Calgary's 2015 agreement may have been updated. Lot grading and development-agreement terms for Winkler, Morden, Selkirk and Niverville could not be confirmed from published sources.
- Related litigation. The homeowners' lawsuit over sewer backups, which includes claims about new subdivisions tied into a strained line, is unproven and is covered in the Sewer backups report.
Sources
Council meetings (official YouTube recordings): Feb 15, 2022 · Mar 1, 2022 · Sept 6, 2022 · Jun 20, 2023 · Jan 16, 2024 · May 21, 2024 · Jul 16, 2024 · Dec 3, 2024 · Apr 1, 2025 · Sept 16, 2025 · Oct 21, 2025 · Dec 16, 2025 · Mar 3, 2026 · Mar 17, 2026 · Apr 7, 2026 · Jul 21, 2026 · Aug 4, 2026 · Sept 1, 2026
- City of Steinbach: Residential lot grading; Drainage complaints; Lot drainage issues flow chart (June 2025); Standard Design and Construction Specifications (Feb 2024); Land Drainage By-law 2274
- SteinbachOnline: Refundable deposits implemented (Jan 2020)
- Brandon: Permit rules and regulations; Development Review Group report, 1900 34th Street (June 2025); Draft Municipal Servicing Standards (Dec 2025)
- Winnipeg: Residential lot grading permit; Park Development Guidelines, Version 2.0 (Nov 2025)
- Other peers: Portage la Prairie engineering; Town of Niverville playground donation (2024); Calgary master development agreement (2015); Lethbridge lot grading permits