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At City Hall

Playground funding On Monday, city council approved $256,602 to replace four school playgrounds. The playground dollars, funded through the city's community capital grant program, came a few weeks after council awarded other grants under the program.

Playground funding

On Monday, city council approved $256,602 to replace four school playgrounds.

The playground dollars, funded through the city's community capital grant program, came a few weeks after council awarded other grants under the program. The delay allowed administration to explain how the city has paid for playgrounds in the past.

City manager Bill Holtby presented council with a manual that outlined the city's responsibilities toward playgrounds, adding that it had been a long time since any had been replaced.

"This is the first time in recent history, that's the last decade, that the city has looked towards replacements of playgrounds," Holtby explain.

Generally, playgrounds built on school property are the responsibility of the local school board, but the city's public works department provides maintenance assistance as well creating a co-operative agreement.

The money will replace four ailing, wooden playgrounds at Ecole Father Jan, Bertha Kennedy, Albert Lacombe and Ronald Harvey elementary schools.

Several parent groups were on hand to request council approve the funding. Coun. Carol Watamaniuk praised their community efforts.

"I'm just always so encouraged when I see people encourage activity," she said. "I think these kinds of projects are extremely important."

Speed limit changes

Coun. Roger Lemieux is on a mission to update the city's speed limits.

Lemieux wants to change speed limits on three of the city's roads in a move he called "common sense."

"I drove around and drove around and got a feel, I spoke to people … so the ones I suggested just made good sense," Lemieux explained.

He proposes reducing the speed limit from 60 kilometres per hour to 50 km/h on Hebert Road between Arlington Drive and St. Albert Trail, while increasing the speed limit to 70 km/h from 50 km/h on McKenney Avenue west of the CN railway tracks.

Lemieux also proposes increasing the limit to 60 km/h on Sir Winston Churchill Avenue between Riel Drive/Gresham Boulevard and the city's southern limits.

Lemieux said the change is not council's top priority and he doesn't want to allocate any additional funding for it unless it's absolutely necessary.

According to planning and engineering general manager Neil Jamieson, an engineering consultant will be hired to assess the impact the changes would have on traffic.

Lemieux asked for a response from administration by the end of the year, but Jamieson is hoping to have it back to council in September.

Land use change

A couple of small changes were made to the city's land use bylaw on Monday night.

Council unanimously approved a zoning change from commercial to direct control at the Hole's Greenhouse and Gardens site on Bellerose Drive.

Administration said the change will not affect Hole's current operations, but the rezoning effectively splits the commercial operation of the site from the residential part where a house currently sits.

A public hearing about the change was held in March where some residents voiced concerns the area would eventually become a subdivision if Hole's moves.

Bill Hole, co-owner of Hole's, assuaged fears at the meeting saying his family had no plans to sell the land to a developer.

"It's my mother and father's land. It's something that's special to us, and we will not simply sell it off," Hole said. "If we were to do that we would have sold it off years ago."

Council also approved a land use change to three sites in Lacombe Park, now allowing them to accommodate semi-detached houses.

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