Among a handful of agenda items listed for the April 18 St. Albert city council meeting is the scheduled second and third reading of the $21.5 million borrowing bylaw for the ongoing re-construction and improvement of Villeneuve Road.
First reading on the 20-year debenture was passed unanimously back in February.
The multi-phase project got underway last year when a roundabout was installed at the Dennison Drive and Jensen Gate crossing. The new borrowing bylaw, with $17-million set aside for actual work and the remaining $4.5 considered contingency funding, will complete the next two phases of the project.
By 2025 the city plans to have streetlights, multi-use trails, and sidewalks installed along the length of Villeneuve Road between St. Albert Trail and Hogan Road, as well as another roundabout installed at the Hogan Road intersection.
In February, council learned that the borrowing bylaw will not be enough to finish the project as design work on the final phase is waiting for a land-use decision from council on the City's Badger lands, located west of Hogan Road.
The Gazette will have an article dedicated to council's decision on second and third reading of the borrowing bylaw in the Thursday, April 20 edition of the newspaper.
Annual audit comes up clean
Contracted accountants from KPMG LLP will be on-hand during the April 18 council meeting to present and discuss the results of the city's annual financial audit, which was completed earlier this month.
The report, which is accessible through the April 18 meeting agenda on the city's website, states that KPMG found no unusual or concerning financial transactions completed by the city in 2022.
“We did not identify any additional significant financial reporting risks that required additional audit procedure,” the report reads.
Accompanying the audit is the city's annual report, which is also available to read through the city's website.
Sustainable building policy exemption request
On April 18, city council will also hear a request from administration to exempt the new Sturgeon Reservoir and Pump Station from the city's Sustainable Buildings Policy, which dictates that all new municipal buildings larger than 500 square metres must receive green certification through a third-party entity.
According to a council backgrounder, approximately $1 million in additional funding would be needed to ensure the new reservoir and pump station would be eligible for green certification. Currently, the multi-year project's budget is about $33 million.
Administration's backgrounder states that while the project team incorporated more sustainable features into the design, such as LED lighting and an energy efficient water heater, it was discovered during a recent project design review that the Sustainable Buildings Policy does not explicitly exclude utility buildings.
“The most well known method of green certification is the internationally recognized LEED Rating System that assigns Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum certifications following a verification and review process,” the backgrounder says. “The LEED program is focussed on occupied buildings or living spaces. It is not reasonable to achieve LEED certification for a mostly unoccupied utility building without incorporating elements into the design that will be under-utilized.”
The backgrounder also identified three other third-party green certification programs, all of which generally exclude utility buildings from consideration.
“Adherence to a requirement for third party green certification would be expected to add cost to the Sturgeon Reservoir project without adding considerable value,” the backgrounder says.
The Gazette will have an article dedicated to council's decision on the possible exemption in the Thursday, April 20 edition of the newspaper.
