The owners of land in Campbell Business Park North are hoping to convince the City of St. Albert to tweak their rules around business parks, but are seeking public opinion before moving forward.
There will be a public meeting 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Red Willow Community Church (15 Corriveau Ave.) to discuss the changes, and proponents want to hear what those both inside and outside the affected area have to say about the changes.
“We’ve sent notices to all the businesses and tenants in the area to make sure they have a chance to comment on this and make sure they feel their interests are protected,” said David Klippenstein, a St. Albert planning consultant who is working on behalf of the landowners, PJSJ Holdings, Inc.
Klippenstein said that the changes to the business park designation under the city’s land use bylaw are necessary because the rules governing the district right now are “fairly exclusive.”
“There has been a feeling, from several different sources, that is too exclusive and a bit too narrow for the marketplace for St. Albert,” he said. “We’re looking to widen the potential uses in there selectively and judiciously to make sure they fit with the businesses that have invested in there at the present time.”
Campbell Business Park North was originally envisioned by the city as a hub for high-tech businesses — a vision that hasn’t panned out as hoped — and Klippenstein added that some of the restrictions he wants to see changed might be a remnant of that initial idea.
“If we were to get high-tech businesses, professional offices, high-tech offices, I’d be delighted. We’d all be delighted,” he said. “But I don’t think the market is that wide and deep. So there is a sense that it is a bit too narrow.”
Currently, all of Campbell Business Park North is zoned under the business park designation, and several businesses have already opened up there, mostly along Circle Drive, but Klippenstein said he doesn’t believe the proposed changes would affect them in a major way.
“In the existing BP … [there are] a set of guidelines on the design, character and appearance of buildings, which everybody in that BP district has built under, everybody who’s there now, and the result is a pretty attractive business park environment,” he said. “We’re not proposing to change those to any great extent. I think it’s a matter of fairness that these remain the same.”
Tuesday’s public meeting is a pre-application meeting, and Klippenstein expects to bring the proposal before St. Albert city council before the end of the year. There, he expects it will receive a warm reception, as a report from the St. Albert Economic Development Advisory Committee earlier this year with a similar recommendation received positive feedback.
“I don’t want to put words in council’s mouth; they’ll have their decision to make at the time it goes to a public hearing,” Klippenstein said. “But I do get the sense that there was general interest in it moving ahead.”
