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Rainbow’s first families unable to move in

No occupancy permits granted until sewer, civil works complete

Three local families can't settle into their new homes at Rainbow despite moving in their furniture earlier this month.

Rainbow's developers have relocated the three families to temporary housing while they work furiously to connect the sewer pipes and get other heavy work done in the next month.

So while the families have possession of their homes, they do not have occupancy permits that would allow them to move in. They are hoping to have those permits by the end of the month.

"We know they're not happy about this because they'd love to be in their new homes," said Ann Chiasson, one of the partners in the Rainbow project.

"We would love to have everybody in their homes."

Chiasson explained that even if the sewer was connected she would still hold off on moving people onto the site because there is still "very high action" work to be done with curbing and paving.

"There's eight children involved and they're all little," she said of the Rainbow's first families. "... To be frank, we felt that it was safer not to have children on site."

To reinforce the message, the municipality took the unusual step of posting 'Do Not Occupy' notices on the homes on July 7.

Bob MacPherson, the municipality's general manager of community life, said they had significant health and safety concerns for people living on the construction site at this time.

"(Posting notices) is something that we don't do that often," he admitted.

"Something as substantial as this, we felt it was prudent to take action and make sure that people are aware that there's a significant health issue."

In addition to the sewer connection, the municipality also had concerns about the road, and those concerns were reinforced after an inspection by the fire department.

That road needs to be smoother in order to allow emergency access to the site, explained MacPherson.

The project is a massive undertaking. The site, between Alpine Meadows and Emerald Estates, has been transformed to make room for more than 200 homes.

"When you're building a huge project like this there's going to be blips and this happens to be a blip..." said Chiasson.

"We're doing everything possible, believe me, to get them in sooner."

Local construction company, Vision Pacific, is building the single family homes on the Rainbow site.

The first three were delivered on schedule, said owner Tim Regan, with possession on June 30. More are set to be finished in the coming months.

"Officially we have said the new occupancy date for these houses will be Aug. 30, but it is our goal to keep working to deliver them for July 30, but we just have to wait until Rainbow finishes its civil work, that work is inspected, and the RMOW is able to process that work..." he said.

The new Rainbow subdivision will be primarily an employee housing neighbourhood with resident and price restrictions on the homes.

There will be market homes in the neighbourhood too.