Lacombe County and developers are close to smoothing out their differences over a paving project.
Lacombe County contends Delta Land Co., which is developing Sandy Point The Resort, owes the county about $1.4 million to pave about a three-kilometre stretch of gravel road leading to the resort on the southwest corner of the lake just north of Bentley.
The paving requirement on Range Road 1-1 was triggered by a clause in the development agreement that says paving is required when traffic counts hit on average more than 400 vehicles a day.
Delta Land Co. developers say those traffic numbers wrongly include vehicles heading to the public beach and boat launch they constructed along with their RV resort. If counting only the vehicle trips connected with the RV resort, traffic remains below the 400-vehicle threshold.
In an agreement yet to be approved by the developers, they would be required to put up land worth the amount owed for paving as security. The county would bankroll the $1.8-million paving project up front with the developers paying the money back with interest set at prime rate plus one per cent.
“Council has approved that subject to Lacombe County entering into an agreement with Sandy Point,” said Lacombe County commissioner Terry Hager on Thursday. “So that should all be moving forward.
“The plan would be to include that in the 2018 asphalt tender.”
The county was intent on getting the paving done soon. The road is well used, especially in the summer when people flock to Sandy Point Beach, which was developed by Delta as a condition of county approval for the RV resort.
“From an administrative perspective, this road needs to be addressed as soon as possible due to the often poor condition and the cost and time-consuming maintenance requirements,” says a report that went to county council this week.