While the country and the province focus on ways to spur the national and provincial economies, on a micro level St. Albert is facing its own uncertainty in terms of future growth.
During his annual state of the city address, Mayor Nolan Crouse – although painting a rosy picture about our city’s current and future prospects – indicated St. Albert is close to hitting the wall on development capacity.
With business parks beginning to fill up and other serviceable lands spoken for, the city is running out of developable non-residential lands – only 50 lots remain.
There is significant land available for non-residential development in the west and southwest portions of the city, however. While developers have expressed interest in the area, some already purchasing land, the major obstacle is a lack of sewer services. As readers will remember those developers bought the land with the understanding it would eventually be serviced, putting the city at risk if it chooses to do nothing.
Enter Project 9. Otherwise known as the Phase 3 North Interceptor sewer line, it has been at the forefront of city because and effectively opens hundreds of acres to non-residential development. The mayor was careful not to state his position on the project, saying he wanted to wait for more public input, but the urgency of the project was evident in his speech.
He made it clear that the investment was not without risk. There is no guarantee the newly serviced lands will be quickly developed and, until it is, the city would be left waiting for its money. Payback on the $40-million project relies heavily on the development model being realized. Whether the investment holds water is the risk-reward decision facing city councillors in the next few weeks. Does the reward outweigh the risk?
We think it does. The city’s finances are in very good shape. If development is delayed we won’t go broke. It may mean other projects are less likely to go ahead as soon as we might like, but if we fail to invest in the city’s growth we won’t capture the taxes that come with it.
The offsite levy funding option means developers would cover the cost of the project as development comes online. On top of that, city projections show that by 2021 tax revenue from development spurred by Project 9 will hit $5 million per year. Five years later that revenue is expected rise to $20 million per year. In 40 years, the city projects full build out and annual tax revenue of $43 million. It’s pretty much a no-brainer in our opinion.
