It seems inevitable that Edmonton’s LRT system will someday extend to and through St. Albert, therefore it’s prudent that our city council has decided to start planning for it now.
As part of its recent approval of the 2013 budget, council passed a $500,000 functional alignment study that will assess where a future LRT line would run through St. Albert, how many stops and stations it would have and how major obstacles like Anthony Henday Drive and the Sturgeon River would be crossed.
Some taxpayers will no doubt find the spending of this money at this time to be difficult to justify, given that Edmonton is still years or decades away from funding and building its northwest line to a park-and-ride station that will someday sit at the southern edge of St. Albert.
It’s important to note that the funds for the study will be coming from a special LRT levy that was established in 2010 to collect money and pay for LRT-related projects. For the past two years property owners have been paying $1 per $100,000 of assessment into the levy fund. That fund’s balance now sits at around $278,000 but is expected to have enough to pay for the study when it’s undertaken next year.
To accomplish this growth, council has increased property owners’ contributions to $1.50 per $100,000 of assessment. Let’s not pretend that this isn’t a tax by a different name. It is. But it’s one that will cost the average homeowner $6 a year. That’s two stops at the Tim Hortons drive-thru.
LRT will be a good thing for St. Albert when it does arrive. Not only will it help the masses who commute daily into Edmonton, but it will help those who travel from Edmonton to work in St. Albert. It will help St. Albert businesses who have difficulty recruiting and retaining employees because St. Albert is currently a remote outpost to Edmonton residents who rely on transit.
If St. Albert continues to grow at the same average annual rate that it’s experienced for the past 20 years, its population will break the 100,000 barrier in about 23 years. Having an LRT line coming on stream at about this time would be excellent timing.
Despite that fact that LRT trains in St. Albert are decades away from being reality, there are benefits to starting the planning process now. For one, the city can get it done for less now than it would cost in the future. Secondly, planning for such a complex project takes a long, long time.
Planning for the corridor that eventually became Anthony Henday Drive began in the 1970s, 30 years before traffic began to flow. By the time Edmonton’s growth had made the road necessary, most of the land required was sitting there waiting for the dozers.
For St. Albert, putting a plan in place now will allow the city to begin systematically acquiring the various rights of way that will be required. Just as importantly, having a plan in place can guide future city decisions, so that land use and development decisions are consistent with the LRT plan and not at cross purposes to it.
