If St. Albertans are confused how the Botanical Arts City could be getting 25 storey towers built downtown, visible for miles, the Sprawl Report helps to explain all the dodgy theories that the Capital Region Board uses to justify these unwelcome changes. Our Mayor Crouse and his Three Amigos on city council are the local cheerleaders and perpetrators of this nightmare vision for St. Albert.
We keep forgetting that this Board was created by our farsighted premier Ed Stelmach (remember him) and his worthy drudge, Ray Danyluk, who once put it this way to the Two Hills City Council, "If you boys don't get busy and organize the regionalization of this county, then the government is going to do it for you. And you ain't going to like it!"
At first glance, the Board's goals seem to be admirable, even if flawed and unscientific. Let's reduce our global warming emissions, lower energy costs, stop the loss of our food supply and increase diversity by "densifying" the city at every opportunity. The real underlying reasons are that the city is in debt for $45.5 million is in no hurry to retire that debt and can't afford to build new developments around St. Albert without forcing the developers to pay for infrastructure. In addition, they can barely manage to keep the existing services intact. They have wasted large amounts of money on mistakes, but that's another story.
So, this plan for "growing" the city is intoxicating for the mayor and his minions, the gang that couldn't shoot straight to achieve their legacy without bankrupting the city and losing their jobs in the process. They know that they can pick off each area in St. Albert and defeat them one at a time, before the taxpayers can mount an effective opposition to having multi-family towers crammed into their residential neighborhoods. They never met a development project they didn't like. The latest opposition group, our Friends of the St. Albert River Valley, is just another canary in the coal mine to alert the citizens of danger. The "wall" of the Tenor condo development is to be extended down the river valley with a new four to five storey monstrosity. Get out the chain saws. Will anyone notice when the canary stops singing?
Bill Whitney, St. Albert – Friends of the St. Albert River Valley
