Council for the RM of Hanover has given first reading to a plan to limit the depth of basements in the municipality.

Reeve Stan Toews says if approved, their zoning bylaw will not allow basements to be deeper than four feet below the natural grade of the soil in their urban centres or rural residential areas. Toews says for someone wanting to dig deeper, they will need a report prepared by a geotechnical engineer.

Toews says over the years, the municipality has spent thousands of dollars repairing infrastructure because these deep basements are pushing more ground water into drains and damaging roadways. He notes just recently a developer in Kleefeld dug a basement deeper than four feet.

"A fellow made a deeper basement and we're having all kinds of issues there," he says.

Toews says if this change to their zoning bylaw is approved, it will not restrict basement depths on rural acreages. Further to that, he says this is not an issue in each urban centre in Hanover, however, the municipality only wants one policy and therefore this change would be for all urban communities.

Meanwhile, Toews says he is not sure how much this report by a geotechnical engineer will cost, though Hanover's administration has hinted it is probably more than just a few hundred dollars.

"If they want to dig a deeper basement, you still can but you will have to spend some extra money to get assurances from an engineer that it's not an issue for the municipality's infrastructure," notes Toews. "We don't know how much it costs but nothing's for free."