The Big Lake Environment Support Society (BLESS) is voicing some concerns it has regarding the city's erosion protection project along Carrot Creek.
BLESS Executive Director Tony Druett spoke to city council on July 15 about some concerns the society has about the $4 million erosion protection project happening along Carrot Creek, with construction expected to begin in 2027.
In the project charter, the Carrot Creek Erosion and Sediment Control project identifies five locations along Carrot Creek with a need to address erosion issues, bank failures, localized scouring and flooding.
Back in March, the city received grant funding up to $2.8 million from the province for the project, with the city funding $1.1 million from the storm off-site levy reserve and $71,000 coming from the offsite levy recovery fund for a total of just over $4 million.
The city is confident that the project will increase the post-development storm discharge rate and increase the flow capabilities of Carrot Creek. The northmost site is up along Highway 2, and the southmost site is just north of Big Lake and 160m downstream from Meadow Drive Bridge.
But BLESS expressed concern over the scale of development, especially in proximity to Big Lake. Druett said he doesn't expect the project to disrupt any wildlife, but said it could change the environmental character of the creek.
"That will no longer look like a natural creek, it will look like it's been reinforced to look like a major storm sewer outfall, frankly," Druett said in an interview. "We're not really objecting to that per say, but we do think that when they plan it should be integrated with what other things are going to be developed down there in that corner of Lakeview and on the south side of Meadow Drive."
The city said the project shouldn't cause significant changes to the creek, according to the City's Manager of Engineering Services, Jordan Betteridge.
"We're actually not going to see significant increased flows going through Carrot Creek. It's going to be pretty well managed that post development flows are going to be very close to pre-development flows," Betteridge said.
City Environmental Coordinator Melissa Logan also said that as the project moves forward, they'll fine-tune some site-specific investigations so they can make sure they aren't having a local impact on any wildlife that may be in the area.
Druett said going forward, he'd like to see BLESS and the public consulted as the project progresses.
"What else is going to be built in the vicinity of these improvements that they're going to be doing? How is it going to be integrated with the future trail system?" he said, which is part of the St. Albert West Area Structure Plan (ASP).
"We'll be pushing for there to be some sort of public hearing," Druett said, with a focus on how the project will affect future neighbourhoods and the trail system in Lakeview.
Betteridge added that the city does plan to have a meeting with BLESS in the future to discuss some of its concerns with the project and that there will be a web page with more details about the project uploaded to the city's website in the future. But he said the scope of the project doesn't leave much room for public opinion to sway the work they can do.
"The scope of work that we're doing is pretty tailored to the specific identified issues that we're facing," he said. "I think there's an information sharing opportunity for the city." n
