St. Albert's streets will have more homes per metre in 30 years now that capital region mayors have voted to crank up the city's density goals.
But residents could end up paying "billions" more on pipes, roads, and sewers because those mayors watered down those targets, predicts Edmonton's mayor.
The Capital Region Board voted Thursday to implement higher density targets for the Edmonton region in its upcoming growth plan.
Said plan will apply to all area structure plans introduced in the next 30 years and require cities like St. Albert to fit more people into less space – all part of a move to preserve farm and natural lands and save billions in infrastructure investment.
But board members also voted to water down those same targets a bit. Instead of requiring 45 units per net residential hectare (i.e. land used for homes), St. Albert will have to reach just 40. That means future neighbourhoods will have more single-family homes than they would otherwise.
Those targets also don't apply to any neighbourhoods that are currently on the planning books.
It's a disappointing move that commits the region to "billions" in future infrastructure spending that could have been avoided, said Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson in an interview.
"We had an opportunity to be bold today, and the board has unfortunately taken a more middle-of-the-road approach."
St. Albert Mayor Nolan Crouse defended his vote for the lower target in an interview, saying that he had to answer to his residents.
"St. Albert is already tightening up," he said, and already doing transit-orientated development.
"I just felt that maybe this was a step that we possibly couldn't live with."
Stony Plain Mayor William Choy savaged the decision, and accused the board of not looking far enough into the future.
"We want to strive for these numbers in 30 years," he emphasized.
"To sit around this table and again and again say we're not going to do it because it doesn't meet (the needs) right now, then you shouldn't be at this table."
Lowered expectations
The recent report from the Advisory Panel on Metro Edmonton's Future warned that the capital region would have to spend about $8.2 billion extra in the next 50 years if it maintains its current rate of sprawl.
The board's growth plan task force called on the region to stop that sprawl using higher requirements for density in yet-to-be-planned areas. The defeated targets meant new neighbourhoods in Fort Saskatchewan would have to fit 40 homes into each hectare instead of 25 as they do now, for example, while St. Albert would have to manage 45 per hectare instead of 30.
The board voted down these targets 16-8, with Parkland County, Stony Plain, Devon, Morinville, Sturgeon County, Edmonton, Warburg, and Leduc County in the minority.
Most communities outside of Edmonton don't have rapid transit and struggle to draw in the high-rises needed for density, Fort Saskatchewan Mayor Gale Katchur said. Fort Saskatchewan would have to build nothing but townhouses in its new regions to meet its proposed higher target, and that would drive many people to rural communities.
"That's not what the growth plan is about. It's about having people (live) where they are working."
The board voted 18-6 in favour of Katchur's proposal to lower most of the proposed targets by five. Instead of aiming for 45 units per hectare, new St. Albert neighbourhoods will have to reach 40 – roughly the same density as Erin Ridge North (41.7) and about twice as dense as Mission (19.9), a chart provided by Crouse suggests.
Future councils will have to approve more duplexes and multi-storey complexes to meet these targets, Crouse said.
"You'll see more developments like you see around Costco. You'll see more developments like you see downtown."
These targets are subject to provincial approval and passage of the entire growth plan, which is set to go to a vote this fall.
