It’s unbelievable that our councillors voted unanimously – only the mayor voted against it – to reduce approximately 15 per cent of the commercial land along the trail north of Costco (Erin ridge North Phase 2) and approve rezoning it for more residential. The loss of commercial land means we will never achieve shifting the tax base to the targeted 80/20 goal.
One councillor said we don’t need the commercial land as more shopping is done online from services such as Amazon. Another said the land would be left undeveloped and be a dust bowl and tumble weeds. Really? Can Amazon supply hairdressers, dental or doctors’ offices, lawyers or auto services, or a movie theater or restaurants etc.
Have any of our city councillors driven out to Sherwood Park and seen the massive amount of commercial development all along Yellowhead and Baseline and Wye roads? Have they driven out to Spruce Grove and seen the commercial development along highway 16x all the way to Stony Plain? Have they seen the commercial development along Manning freeway? Have they even read about the massive $150-million “outlet collection mall at EIA” of 100 stores and 1,000 jobs.
Losing this prime commercial land along St. Albert trail means our councillors have lost a golden opportunity to diversify our tax base and voted to shift more of the growing tax burden to homeowners.
Mike Killick, St. Albert
