Rampart-Avenir submitted its area structure plan (ASP) for its mixed-use residential and commercial development on the city’s northwest corner, but it will likely be some time before city council reviews it.
Per the terms of council’s municipal development plan (MDP) amendments last summer, Rampart-Avenir was to submit its ASP by Dec. 30, 2011. Both Guy Boston, general manager of planning and engineering, and Gerry de Klerk, CEO of Rampart Capital Corp., confirmed the city received the ASP by that deadline.
“So they have submitted an ASP document,” Boston said. “They have paid the fees associated with an ASP document but there are many requirements that have to be met.”
Those requirements include the remediation of landfill, referred to as Pit 2, on the adjoining property optioned by SAS Sports City, owned by Pat Cassidy. A development permit was issued to the landowner last year. Until that pit is cleared and Alberta Environment issues a certificate stating it has been remediated, council won’t be looking at the ASP.
Cassidy did not respond to requests for comment.
“We have not been in contact with Mr. Cassidy regarding the remediation,” de Klerk said in an email interview. “We assume that Mr. Cassidy will honour his commitment made to the city to remediate in a timely manner.”
According to the city, the landowner has come across some other “considerations.” Mayor Nolan Crouse said he expects to hear from Cassidy by the end of next week with a new schedule.
“The city hasn’t held anything up and Avenir is not holding anything up. The ball is in Cassidy’s court,” Crouse said.
The city has no exact timeframe on when the pit will be cleared, but according to Boston, “this is not something that’s going to turn around quickly.”
Filing its ASP is only one step in the process too, Boston said. There are several other reports that need to be filed before the planning department can start reviewing Avenir.
“There are still lots of reports that need to be provided on servicing, what you do from a transportation perspective, just a million reports of how you’re going to build it and support what you’re envisioning,” Boston said. “What we have is the beginning of that.”
The ASP won’t just sit on a shelf until Pit 2 is remediated, but will be reviewed as more reports come in. That being said, the department is not going to drop everything to work on it.
“The critical path is not the technical reports, but the landfill,” Boston said.
