Part 3 in a series. For part two, click here and part one, click here.
There were raised voices and even some tears as nearly 40 years of frustration spilled over in the Hart Highlands elementary school gymnasium on Feb. 5.
Words like frustration, disillusion and even extortion were thrown around as dozens of residents, representing 100 Hart property owners facing thousands of dollars in additional taxes for the installation of city sanitary sewer lines, pleaded their case to city staff, members of city council - really anyone who would listen - for some financial assistance.
At issue was the city's one application for a joint federal-provincial grant, the first intake of the New Building Canada Fund's Small Communities Fund, that city staff had recommended be used for an erosion mitigation project on the Fraser Bench lands in Lower College Heights.
Ultimately, city council decided to go with the staff recommendation, leaving the Hart residents to consider saying "yes" to a potential $2.9 million project that would finally allow them to get rid of their septic systems.
"We all want it to get done, but the costs are astronomical," said Sylvia Korotash.
Korotash, a Hart Highlands resident, has been working for months to research grant opportunities and lobby the city for financial assistance.
But she is just the latest part of a decades-old saga that dates back to when the Hart was brought inside the boundaries of the city of Prince George in 1975.
Decades after amalgamation, growing pains are still being felt in a city that had grown too large, too quickly without the necessary investment in infrastructure that people believed would come with the creation of a greater Prince George.
Essential services
"As of this day, a new horizon unfolds for the city of Prince George."
With those words, former mayor Harold Moffat ushered in the first elected city council of the newly amalgamated municipality, created in the wake of a 55.3 per cent favourable referendum vote two months prior.
According to minutes of the inaugural Jan. 6, 1975, meeting used by local historian Valerie Giles for her 2007 book Harold Moffat and the Northern Hardware: Prince George Icons, Moffat noted the expansion of city's boundaries - its 11th since incorporation in 1915 - would not only bring an increase to the tax base, but "it also brought responsibility for providing essential services."
Though the city received a more than $5 million pay out from the province to help smooth the transition, it didn't go to those essential services that Moffat highlighted in his inaugural speech.
A letter to the editor published in the Sept. 10, 1976 edition of The Citizen outlined one resident's frustrations.
"We still have our own wells, our own septic tanks, no fire protection, unpaved roads and no street lights. (We) dump our own garbage," wrote Vanway resident Florence Bernt. She expressed incredulity that the issues would be sorted out in the promised five years as the city was also starting to plan for the development of Cranbrook Hill. "What have we gained? The right to a free library card. ... Remember that we didn't want you, you wanted us, forget Cranbrook Hill for a while and give (us) what amalgamation promised."
In its July 1974 submission to the ministry of municipal affairs, the restructure committee -the group created by Moffat in 1973 to study the feasibility of a greater Prince George - acknowledged bringing every resident up to city standards for utilities would be difficult.
The committee made note of "inadequate water supply and sewer facilities" that were provided with the original purchase price of homes in areas such as Parkridge Heights and Western Acres.
While amalgamation is usually thought of as a coming together, in the city's case it seemed at times to be more of an arranged marriage - the formalities were worked out at an upper level leaving many who felt they ultimately didn't have a proper voice in the proceedings.
In the days immediately following the successful Nov. 2, 1974, vote, the first - and last - mayor of South Fort George Len Proppe expressed his displeasure with the result.
"This was not asked for by the people," Proppe told The Citizen. "The NDP forced amalgamation on them and used the city council as its dupe to do it."
Proppe's village of South Fort George, which had been incorporated as a municipality only six years prior, barely mustered up 23 per cent approval for joining Prince George.
It was a sentiment echoed across the outlying region, with the exception of voters in College Heights and Peden Hill.
Rural residents fought back against a potential loss of the lifestyle to which they had become accustomed, as well as the fear of tax increases.
"I have all I really need. Water, street lighting, sewage... and pay more than the people in the city do for garbage pickup," Beaverly resident Starr B. Carson wrote in an October 1974 letter to the editor. "We have our own fire truck, our own school, skating rink, large lots and fresh air and wonderful neighbours."
But what they should have been worried about was the strain poor planning would have on their future, said a former Prince George alderman.
Elected in late 1974 to sit as one of the Hart Highway's first representatives on city council, Art Stauble was a member of the Nechako Improvement District formed after the area's water supply started to show signs of trouble in the 1960s.
"The first subdivisions that were made out here were (designed) by Victoria - from way down there - and they were not satisfactory," Stauble recalled. "They were too close together and people started to have trouble with the water - they had poor water suddenly."
Bob Martin, who served as an alderman immediately following amalgamation until 1977, said there was a push to develop on large lots outside of the city before the boundary change.
But those large properties eventually needed city support.
"The development of these five-acre lots outside the city boundaries are going to come back and bite us," said Martin in a 2009 interview with Exploration Place staff. "On the north end, here are guys going into these areas, putting in these five-acre lots and down at the end of the road, somebody has quite a lot (of property) and wants power. So I've got to pay for the power, I've got to pay for the roads to go to it, now I have to pay for the upkeep of the roads, I've got to pay for... school buses to go out there and back for the kids."
Those big lots were popular because developers could get around needing to provide sanitary sewer lines, and instead could put the homes on septic systems, Martin said.
"So it cost us lots of money so... that was why the first part of Hart Highlands was and still is septic tanks," Martin said. "The whole thing was done in the regional district, I think, by a planner that wasn't very good."
Though it would eventually become the prevailing belief, the restructure committee didn't specifically say it was the responsibility of the city to make sure there was adequate service in outlying areas.
"These systems should be brought up to current proper standards by either the provincial government or the developers through provincial enforcement," said the committee's report.
The report also laid blame for the wide footprint of the outlying areas on poor planning on the part of the province and regional districts.
"Because of this sprawl, the cost of providing essential services, such as water and sewage, on a proper engineered basis, will
be extremely costly and will demand much of the financial capabilities of the restructured municipality," it said.
However the financial ask to the province wasn't for those utilities, but for recreation facilities, fire protection and public works equipment because those were the types of things necessary to encourage people to move to resource cities like Prince George and "make life more palatable in a hostile climate," said the committee report.
Some city money was eventually spent on services, but more than a few neighbourhoods - like those in the Hart Highlands - found themselves holding the short straw.
The city doesn't pay for connections to its utilities, as it is up to whomever develops the properties or subdivisions to ensure they have the necessary services. Those costs are included in the home buyer's price.
For those who weren't in the city and didn't have services, they're subject to a local area service tax, which takes the cost of the connection and tacks it on to their property tax bill over a 20-year period.
But a sanitary sewer installation in 2015 is a far cry from the same work getting done shortly after amalgamation, when the province was covering up to 75 per cent of the cost through the Sewerage Facilities Assistance Act.
As part of a presentation to council on Oct. 20, 2014, Korotash and research partner Dale Grieves collected correspondence between residents and the city dating back to the 1970s.
By 1977, construction of a sewage lift station, sewer trunk lines and crossings were underway north of the Nechako River with the general expectation that residential connections could begin by 1978.
A letter dated Sept. 28, 1977 to a Hart Highlands residence outlined a five-year, $9.9 million city of Prince George project to connect the entire area.
But by the mid-1980s, homeowners were still waiting.
In an April 17, 1984 letter, city manager Chester Jeffery tried to explain the delay, blaming the ongoing wait on the need to raise user fees to unacceptable levels and the province's lack of support - now dwindled down to a 25 per cent grant, if that.
"A shift of this magnitude against the favour of the city must lead council to a heightened review of the larger commitment it must now make to new projects," said a March 13, 1984, finance and audit committee report. "Such review in our current slow growth period may lead to facilitating municipal servicing in a reduced number of areas."
