Due to the increase in traffic on the roads around Sandy Point RV Resort, a number of lot owners petitioned the County to have the road paved, which the County in turn supported.

Those roads, as well as roads in the Degraff area and around Lincoln Ranch are on tap to be paved next year, with the details finalized with the Degraff developers, while negotiations are ongoing with the Lincoln Ranch developers.

However, the developers in the Sandy Point area, Delta Land Co., have yet to pay the County the approximately 1.7 million dollars they owe, as part of their development agreement.

County Councilman Ken Wigmore explains.

“I call it a Mexican standoff. We’ve asked the developer for his money to pay it, and he’s declined it, although not in official forms. And council doesn’t want to break the development agreement.”

Wigmore says neither the County nor the developers anticipated the popularity of the Sandy Point area.

“In the development agreement it was 400 cars a day. It doesn’t spell out in the agreement whether it’s to the beach, to the development, or to the boat launch, or all. So that was not spelled out, I don’t believe anyone expected the beach to be as beautiful as it is, and to get as busy as it is.”

The vehicles per day count this summer averaged closer to 500 per day, with the road seeing more than 1,000 vehicles a day during long weekends.

Earlier story: Lacombe County Outlines 2018 Paving Needs.