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Off-site levies, park land purchase and e-scooters coming to council

The permanent E-scooter program, off-leash dog park improvement projects, and service level inventory updates are also on the March 21 agenda. 
STOCK St. Albert Place in St. Albert November 1, 2017.

St. Albert city council has a busy agenda for its upcoming March 21 meeting, including a potential update to the off-site levy bylaw and a proposed levy rate-hike; a potential land purchase as part of the ongoing Heritage Park project; and much more. 

Off-site levies

The proposed update to the city's off-site levy (OSL) bylaw comes after administration completed an annual report on the program for 2022. The update includes new cost estimates for all future projects eligible for OSL funding. 

The annual report and proposed bylaw update has increased cost estimates for just under half of all 27 of the proposed roadway, or transportation, projects planned in St. Albert that are OSL-applicable. 

For example, the report says the estimated cost of the planned twinning of Bellerose Drive from Oakmont to the eastern city limit has jumped from $8.8 million to about $20.8 million. The roadwork planned on Hogan road between Villeneuve Road and the northern city limit has also increased from an estimate of $11.9 million to about $25.4 million. 

As a result of the sharp increase in cost estimates for road projects, administration is proposing an OSL rate increase of almost $100,000 per hectare. The 2022 OSL rate for road work was $202,118 per hectare. 

Off-site levies are collected by the city as a way of funding construction on needed municipal projects that cannot be paid for entirely by a municipality. Usually a developer such as Landrex, or the city, will "front-end" the funding for a project, and subsequent development companies that benefit from the front-ending of construction projects are charged an OSL, which is used to reimburse the company or the city who provided the needed cash up front. 

E-scooter, off-leash dog parks and Heritage Park

The permanent E-scooter program, off-leash dog park improvement projects, and service level inventory updates are also on the March 21 agenda. 

City council will also decide on March 21 whether the city will purchase land in the Mission neighbourhood to be used as part of the ongoing Heritage Park project. A council backgrounder included in the agenda does not say how much the city is looking to spend on the land purchase, just that the city will pay market value. 

“An opportunity has arisen to acquire at a fair and reasonable price without the need for expropriation, certain properties adjacent to and surrounded by Heritage Park, which will allow completion of development of Heritage Park consistent with its approved Functional Plan,” the backgrounder says. 

Money to measure revenue and expenses

Lastly, council will debate a motion put forward by Mayor Cathy Heron which, if successful, will signal St. Albert's support of a grant application recently submitted to the provincial government by the Alberta Mid-sized City Mayors Caucus. 

The grant application, according to a council backgrounder, is seeking $400,000 to develop an "interactive and illustrative model" to keep track of revenue and costs or mid-size cities in Alberta to better analyze funding gaps. 

The project will also involve the establishment of "a common dashboard to track progress over time towards achieving the full economic potential of Alberta’s midsized municipalities," the backgrounder says. 

"A supporting motion of each member council is not a requirement of this grant, but the intention in having member municipal councils support the application via resolution, is that the probability of receipt of provincial funding will increase."

The Gazette will have coverage of these stories in the March 26 edition


Jack Farrell

About the Author: Jack Farrell

Jack Farrell joined the St. Albert Gazette in May, 2022.
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