Higher than expected development fees coupled with low enrolment has prompted organizers of a new Christian private school to abandon plans to build a temporary facility.
Instead, congregation members at King of Kings Lutheran Church will renovate their existing building near Coal Mine Road in preparation for a September start to classes, said principal Ken Albinger.
"We have to start more modestly and take longer to develop than we had anticipated," he said. "Until the enrolments are larger, the figures just don't add up."
School organizers were blindsided by a new city policy established in March that will require the church to pay off-site levies of $269,365 per hectare of land it buys for development.
The Lutheran Church-Canada owns about nine hectares of land adjacent the church site. The local congregation is looking to buy at least 1.2 hectares of this land, which would mean a hit of more than $323,000 in off-site levies.
The original plan was to acquire about three hectares. But off-site levies topping $800,000 would put that much land out of reach, Albinger said.
Church members aren't wild about being treated like a developer because they feel they don't have the ability to recoup these costs the way a developer can, said Mark Wolgram, a congregation member who chairs the school development committee.
"We're not going to make any money on this deal so if we have to pay a lot of up-front costs, it's going to impact the church quite a bit," he said.
"It is what it is … is anybody standing up and saying, yahoo, we get to pay the city a whole bunch of money? Of course not, but we'll do what's necessary."
The off-site levy bylaw is in line with the practices of other municipalities, said Neil Jamieson, St. Albert's general manager of planning and engineering. The bylaw doesn't discriminate between large or small developers or make allowances for non-profit groups, he said.
"If that infrastructure goes in, the value of the church's land goes up just like everybody else's. They could subdivide some of the land for private development and they would be entitled to the profits," he said.
Another option would be to redistrict some of the land to highway commercial, which would increase the value.
"They could sell the land and move somewhere else and buy cheaper," Jamieson said.
Church members are starting to realize that they are sitting on valuable commercial land but there's been no talk about moving, Albinger said.
"We may have to consider our options. We're buying time so that we can do that," he said.
Landrex plans to begin developing Erin Ridge North this year and the soonest that services could be at the church's property line is next summer, said project manager Patrick Shaver.
Low enrolment
The temporary school has 16 firm enrolments and 14 other expressions of interest, Albinger said, less than half what he'd hoped.
The school will teach the Alberta curriculum as well as a Christian studies curriculum developed by the Lutheran Church. Annual tuition will be about $2,600 per child.
The church has spent $24,000 so far on marketing, Albinger said. This has included billboards on St. Albert Trail and ads in newspapers, Facebook and Shine FM, an Edmonton Christian station.
"I suspect that until we can show something real to people or we're practising and people can come observe what we're doing, we're going to struggle to find enrolments," Albinger said.
