St. Albert city council's standing committee of the whole will receive another update on administration's ongoing work to substantially update the city's land use bylaw on Tuesday, while also getting an opportunity to discuss a new report on what would be involved in establishing a take it or leave it facility similar to the Hodge Podge Lodge in Sherwood Park.
The land use bylaw, which administration started working on an update for in the fall of 2022, dictates how and what kind of development takes place throughout the city. The bylaw also regulates development standards, lot sizes, building uses, and much more.
The substantial update that administration has been working on is almost complete, according to a new report to council, although council's committee of the whole will hear a couple of new changes being proposed on Tuesday before the draft changes are circulated for a three week period next month.
Since council last received an update in July, city planner Barb Dupuis' new report explains, administration has drafted further changes to regulations around parking minimums, landscaping, and downtown building uses.
The new change for parking minimums involves reducing the parking requirements for non-residential buildings from being required to have one parking stall for every 45 square metres of building space, to being required to have one parking stall for every 50 square metres of building space.
Dupuis' report states the new change around landscaping requirements is limited to removing greenfield landscaping requirements in low-density residential areas, and the downtown building uses change is to allow for residential building uses on the first floor of downtown buildings, which is currently prohibited.
“The intention is that by allowing more flexibility, there may be more opportunities for redevelopment,” Dupuis wrote of the downtown building uses change.
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Take it or leave it facility
Last summer council passed a motion put forward by Coun. Sheena Hughes asking administration to provide a break down of what would be required to establish a take it or leave it, or reuse, facility in St. Albert, similar to the Hodge Podge Lodge in Sherwood Park.
The Hodge Podge Lodge opened in the Broadview Enviroservice Station in 2018, and is a 1,500 square foot space that is municipally staffed and volunteer run. How it works is that people can go to the Lodge and donate household items that can't be recycled, or can be recycled but might still have life in them, and other people can go there and take items that catch their eye.
The stated goal of the facility is to up-cycle household items and reduce the amount of perfectly good material being land-filled.
City administration's break down of creating a similar facility in St. Albert has now been finished, and will be presented to the standing committee of the whole on April 9.
According to a report included in the committee's meeting agenda, creating a similar facility in St. Albert could come with a one-time cost of almost $1 million to establish the outdoor but fenced-in space complete with signage and parking. Running the facility, including the cost of one full-time staff member to work there, would be between $135,000 and $155,000 per year, according to the report.
Hughes, when she put her motion forward last summer, said she'd like to see such a facility be included in the city's Mike Mitchell Recycling Centre in Campbell Business Park, however, administration's report says they don't think it would be feasible to fit a take it or leave it facility in the recycling centre.
10 year capital plan update
Administration is also asking the committee of the whole to recommend to council that two changes be made to the city's 10 year capital growth plan, which is a major planning document that lists all of the city's major projects in the works over the next decade.
The two changes are to add a project to the plan, and remove a project from the plan.
The new project administration is proposing is a $1.4 million expansion of the city's municipal area fibre network.
The expansion would “create secondary redundant fibre network connections for Fire Hall 4 and provide primary and secondary fibre network connections to city utilities facilities in the northeast servicing area,” according to a report to council.
The project administration is asking council to remove from the capital plan and abandon in general is an $8.72 million expansion of the fitness area of Servus Place.
“This project charter should be removed due to the outdated construction costs, the evolution of usage patterns at the Servus Place fitness centre... and the planning around the Community Amenities Site,” reads another document attached to the meeting agenda.
