St. Albert city council will decide on Monday night whether to proceed with industrial development in an area west of the city where landowners do not support anything but residential development, or beginning a potentially long, costly annexation process to obtain the necessary land.
Or, says Mayor Nolan Crouse, it could be both.
"It could be both or neither or one," Crouse said. "The development industry is saying they suggest annexation."
Whichever option council selects, its decision will begin the long-awaited process of targeting a plot of land for the location of light industry. Combined with the current review of the city's offsite levies in conjunction with the Urban Development Institute (UDI), council is trying to bring in more industrial development to offset the tax burden laid at the feet of homeowners.
In December council debated several options for increasing the city's available supply of industrial land. While council approved lands already designated for non-residential development, it also asked administration to do more consultation to determine where the development industry would like to see industrial development.
Administration has recommended that council adopt the option known as 2B, a 700-acre area west of the city, north of Meadowview Drive that crosses the railroad tracks.
Annexation an option
If council does not select that option, administration has recommended that council begin annexation proceedings, a potentially time-consuming and costly venture. The city's agenda report states beginning the work in 2013 will require a minimum $500,000.
Coun. Cathy Heron said, from what she's heard, developers aren't enamoured with option 2B.
"They don't see the site as the best option," Heron said. "There's nothing drawing the developers into that land and no marketability."
Several groups, including the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce, have called for looking outside St. Albert's boundaries if necessary. Lynda Moffat, president and CEO of the chamber, says the group hasn't called explicitly for annexation, but wants council to move forward aggressively.
"Our main point is to come to an understanding that, unless you get businesses operating, our sustainability is looking bleak," Moffat said. "We need to create jobs for our people. You can't do that unless you stick to your guns and get some land over there we can locate and put out the welcome mat."
The last annexation of lands from Sturgeon County took nearly a decade to complete and soured relationships between the two municipalities. The county has since pulled out of the intermunicipal development plan (IDP), which identified not just the lands the city annexed but land it could annex in the future if needed.
"The politics [of an annexation] or the ability to pull that off is going to be very challenging in the next five or six years. So that maybe the best opportunity is to approach both options parallel," Crouse said.
The last annexation was also touted as needed for residential expansion. Consequently, landowners in the annexed area were promised their lands would not be used for industrial purposes.
"I do not think we have willing landowners," Crouse said. "You've heard me say this for years, unless we you have willing landowners, you don't have that development. But if you don't keep moving the process forward, you won't have that."
But Crouse said he will not feel handicapped by promises to keep the annexed land as residential.
"Things have changed," he said. "The climate has changed. I personally am not going to be handicapped that it was 100 per cent residential."
Cost too is an issue that will factor into the decision. Extending services into the lands in option 2B have been estimated as high as $10 million by developers, which Jim Pennell of Genstar cited in December as potentially prohibitive.
The city has made clear it is not getting into the land development business. Instead, it will address costs through its levy review and help find developers who are willing to get in there and start digging.
"If you do nothing, you have to at least paint the picture of the future and maybe some landowners that are willing to develop this area will come," Crouse said.
