A report could help advance development at the Williams Lake Regional Airport, but not without coming up with some cash first.
"At the moment, we're sort of service challenged," said Beth Veenkamp, economic development officer for the city of Williams Lake, while also highlighting some of the assets the airport has that many others don't.
City council was receiving a report from Veenkamp at their committee of the whole meeting Nov. 26.
She presented the 83-page report to council, which was completed thanks to a $125,000 grant from the Rural Economic Development Investment Program to give a full report on the utilities at the airport facility in order to look at opportunities for expansion.
"We have a lot of opportunities at the airport but until we figure out how we're going to service any properties up there and get a really clear picture of where we're at with our present servicing, we're kind of stuck and we can't do anything," she explained to council.
While she has had requests for business development related to the airport, she has not been able to move forward on them without knowing what the capacity is and could be for sewer and water.
The report gave the city some insight into the sewer output of the entire airport, with a meter issue leading to a need for further readings in the spring to compile complete data.
Airport sewage all goes to the Cariboo Regional District's (CRD) Pine Valley sewer system, which the city has an interim agreement with the CRD for based on previous output estimates.
"Going forward, if we want to do any development, that's going to be something we have further discussions with," said Veenkamp.
The city also learned it was over its water licence, requiring it to make a new application put in for water use to the province.
Veenkamp said since 2017 with the Cariboo Fire Centre "building building building" every year, they suspect this has impacted the water use.
The report compiled everything in one digital location from historic data to test pits for sewer, which showed septic fields could be used for further development.
"We have sort of a phased approach of if we were going to develop at the airport," she said of the report, which lays out some strategy for future development.
It would be a $3 million price tag, said Veenkamp, to get a new water reservoir and drill a new well for expanding the facility.
While not in the budget at the moment, Veenkamp said there is a clear desire from the community to have more commercial space at the airport, mentioning a potential for a hotel, the proposed cafe space and additional hangars.
"It really does present a remarkable opportunity for our community, it's just going to take some bucks to get it going," she said.
Council members passed a motion put forward by Coun. Scott Nelson to endorse the report and directing staff to send it to the CRD, local First Nations and looking at partnering with the province on further development, as well as sharing the report with Transport Canada with the request to remove any barriers to potential future development.
