By Steve Hubrecht
Fieldstone Glen residents presented to Invermere council recently, seeking a longer fence to separate their homes from the new development being construction literally right next door.
Last year the Pioneer ran several reports about Fieldstone residents’ frustration over how a public right-of-way immediately east and south of their community was being turned into on official public road (15A Crescent). They had known for some time that the road would be built as an access route for the new Highland Mews development, but were stunned in early fall 2021 to learn that it would be a mere seven feet to two feet (between two metres to half a metre) from some of their back decks.
The Fieldstone residents went to several Invermere council meetings from September through December 2021 pressing their case and asking for a resolution to the issue, but were ultimately left disappointed, as various council members and district staff offered personal apologies, but in the end explained that the road could not be moved.
They came before council again at the end of this past September, during a committee of the whole meeting, trying to clarify where exactly the fencing along the new 15A Crescent would run.
“They promised us a fence and they are falling short on the promise,” Fieldstone resident Shelly McKersie told the Pioneer, speaking the week after the meeting.
McKersie added that when the fence was promised to Fieldstone residents, to at least separate them somewhat from the dust and construction (and, eventually, from the traffic) of the new road, their understanding was that the fence would run across the entire south end of Fieldstone and some way up the east side of Fieldstone.
But, McKersie explained, later that it seemed — to the residents’ dismay — that the fence might only go across the south side of their community, to the deck of Victoria Gordon.
“They told us they can only do it to there,” said McKersie.
She, and other Fieldstone residents, were heartened to hear during the committee of the whole meeting that the fence may be extended.
“They said they are going to revisit it,” said McKersie. “That is how it was promised, or at least how we thought it was promised, way back when. We asked for that in writing back then, to be sure, but we never got anything in writing.”
Councillor Greg Anderson was at the meeting, acting as mayor in the absence of Invermere mayor Al Miller (who was out of province on business).
“They (the Fieldstone residents) are concerned about the impact of the development on their life. We’ve made a commitment with them to come up with a better alternative (to the current fence plan),” Anderson told the Pioneer, speaking after the meeting. “Unfortunately we can never make it what it was before the development. It has changed their lives. But we have asked staff to sit down with the residents and come back with some reasonable solutions on how we can make things at least a little bit better.”
This could include not just longer fencing, but trees and other ‘buffer’ strategies, explained Anderson.
“It’s not a situation anybody would have preferred, but we need to make the best of it that we can,” he said. “We need to be compassionate to how this has impacted their lives.”
