City councillor Sheena Hughes wants to harness the momentum driving development in St. Albert’s northeast.
If that means a modification or even a rewrite of Flourish, the city’s municipal development plan (MDP), so be it.
Council voted 5-2 Dec. 3 to support a motion from Hughes that compels city staff to explore what would need to happen to enshrine the northeast as a priority growth area on par with the west. Mayor Cathy Heron and Coun. Natalie Joly voted against. Staff have until April 1 to bring a budget request and report to council.
Earlier this year council approved an area structure plan (ASP) for the west and a borrowing bylaw worth more than $60 million to service its beating heart, the Lakeview Business District, expected to create 5,000 new jobs in the coming decades.
Currently, growth in the northeast is at a standstill because of a lack of sewer capacity. More than $70 million could be needed to eliminate that bottleneck, but the city’s planners are against that spending in the near term.
They warn that if that work is done, the development it would inspire would in turn put the city in a position where it would have to spend tens or even hundreds of millions more on other supporting infrastructure projects, from roads to fire halls.
“If we grow in every direction we have to buy buses in every direction and fire halls in every direction,” Heron said. “That’s the unsustainable growth we were trying to curtail in the MDP.”
Staff also warn the work to change the MDP would cost at least $450,000.
Heron argued what Hughes is after would in fact require “completely rewriting our MDP,” which could cost more than double that. She cautioned that would mean tossing out the public input that went into its writing.
Hughes dismissed that argument, saying because the MDP was written without considering the annexed lands in the northeast, it is incomplete.
“I don’t throw away half a million dollars lightly … (but we) didn’t ask residents if they want to grow to the north. We didn’t include that as an option.”
She said $450,000 is the price of doing it right this time.
She argues she also supports developing the west, and that St. Albert should be more like neighbours Edmonton and Spruce Grove, which are growing in every direction.
“This isn’t about picking a favourite child, it’s about having two children.”
Coun. Wes Brodhead also made the case for development in the northeast. At the end of the meeting, he filed an information request (IR) with city staff asking what contracted planning and engineering resources are available to the already busy planning department “to allow the concurrent development of northeast St. Albert.”
He also wants to know whether the cost of hiring outside help would be included in the overall planning budget for that corner of the city.
“If we’re going to provide any servicing at all, we have to go the whole nine yards,” he said, adding he hopes that doesn’t take away from growth in the west.
“The cost to St. Albert is too high to bear regardless of the money going out the door, Brodhead said. “Opportunity doesn’t knock every day. There’s momentum to the north. Let’s capture it.”
