Parker Lands Project Moving Forward – Our Communities

Fort Harry
Grant Park

After more than a decade, the Parker Lands development — eventually called Fulton Grove — was approved by the Downtown Community Committee at its April 4 meeting.

The committee's approval marks the next step up the ladder of the civil approval process for the plans. The council's property and development committee voted in favor of the proposal on April 11, and it now awaits approval by the full city council.

Fulton Grove will include 1,918 multi- and single-family residences on 47 acres of south Winnipeg land bordering the CN Railway Rivers line and Southwest Rapid Transit. Gem Equities developer Andrew Marquez has been running the project for 13 years.

Last year, the City of Winnipeg was found responsible for persistently delaying the project and ordered to pay $5 million in damages. This decision and the subsequent decision are being appealed to the regional court.

Marquez brought the Fulton Grove application back to the committee last year, touting the benefits of the project, which would provide affordable housing in a neighborhood with access to rapid transit. It received mixed reviews from council members at the April 4 meeting, but was ultimately approved.

“At the end of the day, we looked at whether the residents were supportive or not,” Kuhn said. John Orlikov (River Heights-Fort Garry).

“The concerns that I read, I read about 12 or 13 letters or phone calls totaling two points. The first is traffic. Beaumont Street is going to change and we need to find ways to make it easier.”

According to Orlikov, the transformation of Parker Lands into the Parker District will increase the population of the area by 200 percent.

“People are confused,” Orlikov said.

“It's a new neighborhood, but it's adjacent to the Beaumont neighborhood. Beaumont district has about 2000 inhabitants. It's going to be 4,000 – I think it's a low number, more like 4,500 – but we'll see what the build is. So this is a very big impact for the Beaumont neighborhood.”

The second issue discussed was the green zone.

“I heard today, and I appreciate it, 'Is a soccer field the best use of space for this area?'” Orlikov continued.

“I'm really like, 'Yeah, it is.' Because we have 4,000 or 5,000 people going to an area where we don't have arable land. So that was a big concern that I had before.”

Orlikov said the city will work with Manitoba Hydro throughout the development, and that public green spaces will be included to minimize land loss, even though it's mulling over the issue.

“Based on the housing stock we need, I think we can find some additional green space.”

Many other issues such as railway safety, sharing space with the humane society and the spacing of the proposed houses were discussed at length.

“What are we doing here?” Marquez said at the meeting.

“Once again, the process has gone wrong in all of this. Why is it so wrong, why are we treated differently … It's just common sense, logical language. We want to maximize the potential of this site.”