High River set to auction 17 homes with a catch

Four years after the flood of 2013, the town of High River, Alta., isselling off what's left ofBeachwood Estates, auctioning 17 empty homes to the highest bidder.

Their new owners will have to move them elsewhere.

High River town Coun. Cathy Coueyupdated David Gray on the Calgary Eyeopener Wednesday.

Their conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Q. How many homes are still standing?

A.Right now, there are 17 of the previously listed structures that are still standing in Beachwood. There were originally26nineof those sales from the first auction were confirmed sales.

• Post-apocalypse photographer captures abandoned High River homes

Q. How much are they going for?

A. I don't have those numbers infront of me, but it really varied. I think a lot of people were surprised by the value that some of those bids came in at. So it will be interesting to see where this round of auction bids ends up.

Note:Homes went forbetween $7,700 and $40,000 on Tuesday.

Q. It's been four years since the flood. Why has it taken so long to sell these?

A.In fairness to the familiesthat call Beachwoodhome, they needed to have time to make decisions about how they wanted to move forward, and I think the province and us as well wanted to be respectful of the fact that it was their homes.Now, they have all moved on and certainly it is our hope that hopefully after this auction,we can move forward and look at that area being converted back to a natural state.

Q. What exactly are you asking the province for?

A.At this point, the agreement is only that those homes will be gone so we would like for the province to either come in andremove the infrastructure, or provide us the funding, so we are able to do that. They want it to be a conveyance for the river, so we don't want there to be any barriers or any sort of impediment for that water flow to go through there.

We just essentially want them to finish the job that they're starting.

Q. What's involved with removinginfrastructure?

A.That's the road razed, that's the sidewalks, that's decommissioning underground services.We have a lift station back here that will have to be decommissioned and relocated.

Essentially, the vision is that we don't still look at it as an abandoned neighbourhood but we also want to ensure that down the road, as people's memories get a little less and less vivid of the impact of 2013, that there aren't those things that say, maybe we could redevelop there there's already some underground infrastructure there, there's already some roadways what could we put there?

This is a real strong statement saying, development won't ever occur in this area.

Q. So is your intent to make it look like no one ever lived there?

A. That's exactly what will happen. Not that we'll forget those that ever lived there and lived in this community ...but for future generationsthat weren't aware of Beachwood, they certainly won't know there was a community there.

What's going on with Wallaceville?

A.Wallaceville was a little bit of a different story than Beachwood. Wallacevillewas not in the floodway. That was a community that council made a very hard decision that we needed that area as part of our mitigation, part of our floodway program, and we needed that area to be able to take future high water because the water can flow through that community easily and return naturally to the river.

We went to the government and asked that they consider buying out the residents in that neighbourhoodand as you're aware, that happened.All the structures were removed and they are currently removing all of the infrastructure at this time.

Q. Will there be a plaque to commemorate all of this?

A.Absolutely. This community has an incredibly rich history and our heritage board here is currently starting a Historic High River program and it is exactly that signage, that remembers different elements of our past.

We obviously lost some significant buildings andlandmarks after 2013 and even over the years, just through age anddevelopment. and we want to retain as much of that.

The Wallaceville area was originally at one time a lumber mill, andso there will be at some point a recognition plaque talking about that andtalking also about the impact of 2013, and what happened to that community.

Q. When's the sale?

A. It's a staggered deadline Sept.26, 27, and 28. Viewing has already occurred, so I guess you've missed the boat there, but I encourage anybody who is interested to take a look. There are some beautiful homes back there, and I'm sure in a new location would make someone a great home.

• MORE CALGARY NEWS|Calgary boy with rare digestive disorder gets 3-minute shopping spree in toy store
• MORE CALGARY NEWS|Infamous Banff-area grizzly killed by hunter in B.C.

With files from The Calgary Eyeopener