A new Edmonton subdivision will bring thousands of homes to Big Lake, but environmentalists worry it could shut out moose and deer.
Edmonton city council approved the neighbourhood structure plan for Big Lake Neighbourhood Two after a public hearing Monday. The 130-hectare subdivision is southwest of St. Albert between 199 Street, 137 Avenue, Ray Gibbon Drive and Anthony Henday Drive.
The project, initiated by the Rohit Group of Companies, is the second of five subdivisions proposed for construction on the south shore of Big Lake. Those subdivisions were authorized under an area structure plan passed 19 years ago.
The neighbourhood will house about 4,800 people in 1,900 homes at build-out, said David Klippenstein, a consultant for Rohit, as well as two schools and plenty of open space. Bioswales and semi-permeable surfaces will handle runoff, and a ribbon of green along Horseshoe Creek will provide passage for animals. "It'll be a great place to live," he said.
But it's also in a very sensitive ecological area, said Charles Richmond, speaking on behalf of the Sierra Club, one that's next to Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park. "It's very likely that this [area structure plan] would not have been approved 19 years ago if they'd been near a provincial park."
Plan revisions
The public got its first look at Neighbourhood Two at an open house last November. Both the Sierra Club and the Big Lake Environment Support Society (BLESS) have since worked with Rohit to revise the plan.
BLESS's main concern was Horseshoe Creek, said spokesperson Dave Burkhart, which runs through the centre of the development. The creek runs into Big Lake and feeds a large patch of ostrich ferns that could be harmed by changes to water quality or quantity.
The fern patch is "quite impressive," Klippenstein said, and covers about two hectares. A biologist hired to examine the ferns concluded that some plants near the end of the creek could be affected, but that, given the size of the patch, wouldn't cause much disturbance.
The region's stormwater system is meant to maintain existing surface flows to the ferns, he said. BLESS has called for long-term monitoring of the region's water flows, and "Rohit is willing to do it." Under an amendment passed by council, BLESS and the Sierra Club will get to review that monitoring scheme before it is approved.
The developer made other changes to its plans to reduce the region's environmental impact, Klippenstein said. It cut the number of river crossings to one from two, for example, added more naturalized stormwater ponds, and agreed to protect two existing wetlands.
No animal crossings?
Richmond was worried about deer and moose movement in the region. These ungulates loop around Big Lake all year, he noted, and the Big Lake neighbourhoods are right on top of their migration routes. "If you want to keep a natural area, you can't do that without wildlife."
Neighbourhood Two hits ungulates with a double-whammy, he said. It eliminates the tree stand along 199 St. — their current route — and asks them to adapt to a new one: a narrow, woody green strip along Horseshoe Creek. "This is not a ravine or river valley in any sense," he said. "It's so small you could almost jump across it."
Moose and deer would not be able to navigate such a narrow space, and would have to stick to the 10-metre top-of-bank setback to either side of it. The city could have made a better corridor with a wider setback, but wasn't willing to use more municipal reserve.
This is the best design the developer could make under the circumstances, Richmond said. "It may be a wildlife corridor for birds and small mammals, but we're quite skeptical that it will function for deer and moose."
Construction was set to start next year, Klippenstein said, with full build-out expected by 2020.
