St. Albert needs more business, says the city's mayor, and council has a 20-point plan to get it.
Mayor Nolan Crouse gave his annual State of the City address to a crowd of about 250 dignitaries Wednesday at the Enjoy Centre. The speech, hosted by the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce, gave an overview of the city's social, safety, economic and environmental progress over the last year.
Just 27.6 per cent of city residents worked in St. Albert in 2010, Crouse said, compared to 21.9 per cent back in 1985. "We want to continue to get that percentage up."
But to do that, he said, the city has to get landowners to develop land. Building permit values have flat-lined in recent years, which suggests the city's pace of development has stalled.
"We must have more landowners bring on more lots."
Council will embark on a year of "aggressive action" to make that happen, Crouse said, one that would start on Feb. 28 when he unveils the city's 20-point plan for economic development.
"It's about creating an environment where the developers are willing to run water, sewer and roads, and open up lots," he said.
St. Albert's brand, road networks and industrial land base should help the city stand out from the crowd and draw investment, Crouse said, but only if developers make use of their land.
"Landowners need to step up and develop and market their empty lots."
The city has to tweak its regulations to lower the cost to do business if it wants that to happen, said Rick Preston, executive director of the Urban Development Institute in Edmonton.
"We must recognize that it is a very competitive landscape in the Capital Region," he said. "The city has to be very aggressive in attracting investment."
Growth plans
Crouse was coy when it came to the details of council's 20-point plan, but did discuss some of its themes.
One was making sure the city had enough industrial land to develop, Crouse said. The city had just 55 non-residential lots open for development as of this week, and needed more to draw investment.
Council is scheduled to hold a vote on April 30 that, if passed, would add some 283 hectares of light-industrial land to the city, he noted.
"I say without that, we do not have economic development."
The city does need more light-industrial land, agreed Ivan Mayer, president of the Riel Business Park Association.
"For any of the big players that are out there, up until now, we [don't] have anything."
The city's land is fractured into tiny lots, meaning big customers (like the 45,000 square-foot warehouse he recently had to turn down) don't have the space to set up. "We need shovel-ready [lots]."
Another part was access. Work this year on LeClair Way, Veness Road and Ray Gibbon Drive will give truckers more ways to get into the city's industrial parks and spur their development, Crouse said.
St. Albert has been hobbled by the fact that it had just one main road (St. Albert Trail), said Lynda Moffat, executive director of the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce, compared to places like Sherwood Park, which has three. These road improvements will give businesses quick access to Anthony Henday Drive and the Edmonton International Airport.
St. Albert needed to loosen up its regulations in order to compete with Edmonton, Mayer said. It also needed to get its new economic development officer in place to actively court companies to come to town.
Landowners will have to take the lead in this development, Crouse said.
"The city doesn't own these lands. It's the landowners who have to develop." Once landowners agree to develop, the city could then help seek clients for their lands.
Edmonton has an alternative approach St. Albert should consider, Moffat said. Instead of waiting on landowners to develop industrial sites, Edmonton itself buys, zones and services lots to kick-start industrial development.
"You don't have a landowner that's digging their heels in and saying, 'We're not going to develop this land for light-industrial use.' "
Whatever the city's plans are, Mayer said the city had to act swiftly to implement them.
"The time for talking about it and putting on paper is over," he said. "We've got a lot of things going in our favour, but we've got to move fast."
