High River angry over Wallaceville demolition plans

Some flood victims in High River are gearing up for a fight after learning the town is proposing to demolish their homes after months of renovations and reconstruction.

In the neighbourhood of Wallaceville, residents have spent the past four months working to move on after June's devastating floods.

Now, the Town of High River says it wants to bulldoze their homes because the costs of protecting the neighbourhood are just too high.

"Nobody wants to just demolish neighbourhoods in High River," said Mayor Craig Snodgrass. "That's not the intention. Wallaceville is an extremely hard area to protect."

Snodgrass says it would take a three metre high berm to protect Wallaceville from future flooding.

He says the measure costs too much money – and plans to ask the province to relocate all residents in the area.

But for homeowners, the idea of being forced to leave isn't sitting well.

"Now we've put in all this effort to rebuild this house, and so you know what? This is my home and I really want to stay now. I don't want to leave," said Susan Stahl-Dyck, a Wallaceville resident.

There's no guarantee the province will relocate all the residents.

But according to Snodgrass, many Wallaceville residents have been pushing in favour of relocation because they want out of the area.