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This article was published 27/2/2015 (2031 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A price tag has finally been attached to the controversial deep-water retention pond project slated for the Parker lands.

City officials said the cost is now estimated to be $35.42 million.

The city plans to construct the retention pond on 8.1 hectares (20 acres) of land to be bought or expropriated from developer Andrew Marquess.

The pond is designed to solve the basement flooding issues during heavy rains in the nearby Lord Roberts and Earl Grey neighbourhoods.

The site of the pond has drawn criticism: The city used to own that 8.1 hectares but traded it to Marquess – along with another 15.8 hectares (39 acres) of the property known as the Parker lands – in 2009 for 3.6 hectares (9 acres) of land Marquess owned in the former Fort Rouge yards.

Critics questioned the city trading that parcel and wanting it back five years later, suggesting officials must have known they would need the site as a possible solution for the basement flooding problem.

Adding to the suspicion is the fact that the city administration refuses to release copies of studies that they say reveal the concept of the pond, and the location, had not been anticipated before the landswap was completed and was only chosen in 2012.

Officials said there is no other suitable site for the pond.

Marquess has said he doesn’t want to lose the 8.1-hectare parcel, adding it will undermine his efforts to extract full value in development from the Parker lands.

The city had placed a price tag of $17,000 per acre on the Parker lands in 2009 but the property for the pond is expected to cost more.

Council approved the expropriation this week, in the event negotiations with Marquess are unsuccessful. Construction for the two-year project is slated to begin in 2016, in conjunction with the completion of the $590-million southwest transit way/Jubilee Underpass project

A civic spokeswoman cautioned that the $35.42 million price tag for the pond is a Class 3 estimate – which could change substantially in value, from a range of 30 per cent higher to 20 per cent lower, as designs of the project are finalized.

The estimate includes land acquisition, utility relocations, construction of the retention basin, and piping downstream and upstream of the basin.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca