Shovels aren’t quite in the ground yet, but St. Albert city council has made another big step towards building a major sewer line needed to support development.
At Monday’s meeting, council gave first reading for the borrowing bylaw needed to help fund the $40-million project.
The sewer line would increase sanitary capacity that’s needed to help move several planned and possible developments forward, mainly on the west side of the city. The project is officially called the Phase 3 North Interceptor, but is better known as Project 9.
Council passed the first reading unanimously. The bylaw, if passed, will allow the City of St. Albert to borrow $30 million for up to 20 years. The other $10 million will be funded from the city’s offsite levies recovery fund, which will also be used to service the debt.
Bylaws require three readings to go into effect. Now that the first reading has passed, the proposed bylaw will be advertised, then a 15-day petition period will start on May 8 and end on May 22.
If a petition effort is mounted to try and force a plebiscite on the issue, the organizers will have to collect signatures from valid voters. The number of signatures needed is equivalent to 10 per cent of the entire population of St. Albert, likely a bit more than 6,300 signatures.
If no petition arises, second and third readings of the bylaw are currently scheduled for debate during the June 7 council meeting.
“This is a little bit precedent-setting,” said Coun. Cathy Heron, noting this council has not contemplated any borrowing during its term.
She said she does believe this debt, if and when it’s realized, is about pushing the city forward and allowing for development to take place.
Other council members were also supportive of moving forward on the project.
Coun. Bob Russell noted the impact is more than just the west side of the city, with developments in South Riel, Amacon’s downtown project and Genstar’s Riverside all dependent on Project 9 as well.
A few people on council took time to praise the financial plan developed by city staff to try and mitigate the need for any tax increases.
“We’ve also made every single effort, us and staff ... to reduce the likelihood that this is going to involve a tax increase,” said Coun. Sheena Hughes.
While Coun. Tim Osborne thinks the project is important, he said he was disappointed that no developers stepped up to help front-end the project. Chief community development officer Gilles Prefontaine noted some of the developers signed their development agreements and have paid levies already.
Osborne also noted adding to St. Albert’s debt load could have impacts on future capital projects.
Mayor Nolan Crouse had strong words about a chamber of commerce event several months ago where three developers asked the crowd to chant Project 9 aloud to help emphasize the importance of the project.
"It was disgusting, quite frankly, that the developers would sit up on stage and in a political environment with the majority of council in the room to ask 200 people to be chanting so that council was feeling pressure to do it. I just thought it was inappropriate," Crouse said.
