Sturgeon County is pulling out of a joint development agreement with St. Albert and county landowners say it is about time.
The county made the first step last week with a motion to repeal the intermunicipal development plan (IDP) a joint planning agreement between the two municipalities that goes back to 2001.
The agreement was designed as a plan to establish how land in an area near the boundary between the two communities would be developed. Any change to that original plan requires the consent of the other community.
Ken Pacholok, a landowner who lives in the Sturgeon Valley, said he was very pleased to hear the county was finally giving up on the agreement.
“By getting rid of the IDP, both municipalities will benefit and there will be one less stumbling block not just for Sturgeon County, but for St. Albert as well.”
Sturgeon County Mayor Don Rigney said last week the IDP has only hindered growth. When he compares the area to other parts of the Edmonton area he believes the added layer of regulation slowed them down.
“When you compare what happened with Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Leduc or Sherwood Park, we just don’t feel we were getting our fair share of opportunity.”
Pacholok said he doesn’t think St. Albert will contest Sturgeon County’s move.
“I think both administrations and their councils will realize that this will be a benefit.”
Jodie Wacko, director of land development with Beaverbrook Developments, which has a proposed project in the IDP, thinks council simply listened to their residents.
“The actions of Sturgeon County clearly reflect what their landowners and ratepayers wanted based on the response I heard at the public hearing.”
Wacko said he didn’t have an opinion one way or the other for scrapping the entire document, but the company did want their land out from under the project.
“We wanted the IDP issues as they relate to our lands addressed. We had no preference with it entirely being dissolved.”
Beaverbrook is proposing a 90-lot acreage development off of Sturgeon Road on the banks of the Sturgeon River called Quail Ridge, just outside St. Albert and inside the IDP area.
Wacko said the two municipalities are now working under the Capital Region Board (CRB), which has a land use plan that should work for both communities.
He said the IDP is an agreement from a different time that does not reflect the situation that exists today.
“The land use plan of the CRB is 2010 thinking. It reflects today, it reflects the council that is in the chair today.”
Wacko said he is hopeful that with the IDP issue out of the way, Quail Ridge will finally be able to move forward.
The county’s move to repeal the IDP starts a process that has always been contained within the agreement. Within 60 days the two communities will have to hold a joint public hearing and the county will have to give the repeal two more readings.
