To help with the sale of the Valley View property, Moose Jaw city council approved an application to subdivide land that will not be a part of the sale, with restrictions.

The subdivisions would affect two parcels of land. One would be the creation of a new agricultural parcel and the other will be re-arranging boundaries of an existing residential property.

There is also a subdivision that is a protected portion of Wakamow Valley. Following the subdivision, the property will be transferred to the Wakamow Valley Authority.

The issue with the subdivisions is regarding access to the properties.

The legal access to the properties is the Seventh Avenue Southwest bridge, which was damaged by a flood in 2013. The physical access is through the Valley View property.

Coun. Brian Swanson said previous studies showed it would cost $500,000 to fix the bridge with the risk of it being damaged again in a flood or rebuild for $4.5 million.

The Saskatchewan Property Management Corporation has told the city they intend to close vehicle access through the Valley View property as of March 31.

“We believe the best negotiations would be for the province to continue to allow access through their property until they or somebody removed the building over the road right away,” Puffalt said.

A condition was put on the subdivisions that primary physical access is provided to the new parcels and that city administration is allowed to negotiate the provisions of the access.

Puffalt said any funding needed from the city would go back to council if needed.

“Our intent would be to have a zero impact on our budget. If there was more than that we would come back to council for discussion,” Puffalt said.

“As you know, we've been able to work towards our budget, for example, we were able to negotiate with the province that they would continue they would continue access we would report that back to council. If we were able to negotiate some agreement on the bridge, we would report that back to council and seek further authorization.”