It could be the battle of the century over St. Albert's future development.
In one corner, the Rampart Avenir proposal to put a residential development in the city's northwest. In the other corner, St. Albert's desire for more light industrial development.
In the next three weeks council will grapple with both issues. First it will receive a report that says the city needs 362 hectares (900 acres) of industrial land in order to maximize growth over the next 25 years. It will then hear from Avenir proponents who are seeking an amendment to the municipal development plan (MDP.)
"It's really come to a head with city council," said city manager Bill Holtby. "They will have to decide ... is this truly the best need and use of this land."
Council will receive the land needs report June 20 and hear public input on July 4. The next step will be for city administration to complete an options study to define which areas could provide the land needs outlined in the report. That report is due by the end of the year.
Avenir proponents will be seeking third reading of an MDP amendment sometime in July.
Muddy waters
Last year council removed the land in the northeast corner of the city, known as the Mis lands, from consideration for light industrial. After Avenir proponents threatened to walk away if their project endured more delays, council agreed in April to exclude the Avenir land from the options study.
Holtby said this leaves only two options within St. Albert for light industrial: land directly south of the Avenir land, west of Ray Gibbon Drive between Meadowview Drive and Giroux, and land along Villeneuve Road between the Walmart site and the future connection with Ray Gibbon Drive.
"The only other thing would be to look at land currently beyond our boundaries that would require an annexation," Holtby said.
Given this situation, city administration will advise council to go against the spirit of its April decision.
"Our advice to council is to hold off on the MDP amendment until we do the options report," said Holtby.
That would delay a decision on Avenir until late 2011 at the earliest.
Avenir backers will abandon their project and seek legal action if a decision is delayed, said Avenir project director David Bromley.
"Motions were passed and people moved ahead and spent money and effort," he said. "We expect city council to honour its commitments."
The next three weeks are pivotal to providing clarity for the Avenir project, Bromley said.
"We just can't continue on with this type of approach. This would become a legal matter after that," he said.
It was Coun. Malcolm Parker's idea to exclude Rampart Avenir from the options study. He thinks the city could approve Avenir and still meet its needs for more light industrial land.
"I think certainly the city can get both things," he said.
The question would then become where to make up the difference in non-residential land.
"That we don't have an answer to yet so it's a matter of understanding how Avenir would fit into the light industrial piece," Parker said.
Mayor Nolan Crouse wouldn't talk about the Avenir proposal because it's still an open public hearing.
"It will come to a head. That's part of what this public hearing is about," he said.
Key decision
Expanding non-residential development is the key to reducing the tax burden on residents, said Gilles Prefontaine, chair of the St. Albert Economic Development Advisory Committee (SAEDAC.)
St. Albert currently has the worst residential to non-residential tax split in the region.
"It has everything to do with the vision of the city," Prefontaine said of council's upcoming decisions. "This whole new annexed area needs to be developed in such a way that will bring us more into balance."
Holtby agreed that councillors are facing a key decision.
"The biggest things they deal with to influence the community are really land use planning and then the budget," he said, "quite likely in that order."
