Leisure lands planned
Morinville’s leisure centre lands will someday have four ball diamonds, two clubhouses and a slightly shrunk hill, town council has decided – assuming it ever finds the money to build it all.
Morinville town council signed off on the conceptual plans for the 66 acres of land around the Morinville Leisure Centre last April 23.
Council got a draft of this plan back in October but rejected it, saying there had not been enough council or public consultation on it.
The approved plan, the result of several public and council consultations, is largely the same as that draft, except the ball diamonds and the soccer fields have swapped positions. Consultant John Buchko told council that the plan covers just half of the 66 acres, leaving plenty of room for other uses.
The plan’s central element is still the big toboggan hill, which is now under construction. Town community and protective services director David Schaefer said in an interview that the hill would not be as wide as expected, as the once seven metre tall hill shrunk to five metres over the winter. (He suspects construction crews grabbed dirt from it to use elsewhere on the site.) Crews will have to reduce the hill’s width to bring its height back to seven metres.
The plan now has four baseball diamonds west of the hill instead of east in response to public comment. The diamonds also point to the northeast so the sun doesn’t get in players’ eyes, Buchko told council. The three soccer fields are now east of the hill and, combined with the hill, can serve as an outdoor stage and amphitheatre.
The plan features trails, several picnic sites, a playground, clubhouse, museum, community garden, and an off-leash dog park near the leisure centre. Council voted 5-2 to move the proposed LAV III memorial to near the Hwy. 642/Range Road 252 intersection to the west of the site from its proposed site near the museum (Coun. Lawrence Giffin and Mayor Barry Turner opposed), and unanimously to add a second parking lot and clubhouse to the northwest corner.
Schaefer said in an interview that it would cost about $4 million to build all these elements, and that construction would depend on partnerships and grants.
Right now, the plan is to finish the hill and plant grass to the east of it, Schaefer said. The stormwater ponds required more topsoil than expected, so crews don’t have enough topsoil to grow urban-level turf west of the hill. Until they do (the town could get some from local developers), the west side will be tilled earth, sub-par grass or crops.
Tax rate approved
Little Timmy might have to go without his annual pass to the new Morinville Leisure Centre this year now that most homeowners will be out $213 more in all taxes and fees this year.
Town council approved the 2019 property tax bylaw last April 23. The rates include a five-per-cent rise in property taxes, a roughly one-per-cent rise in the Homeland Housing tax, an estimated two-per-cent rise in education taxes, and a new split mill rate that sees non-residential properties taxed 1.1 times more than residential ones.
The owner of a $300,000 home can therefore expect to pay $4,515.57 in all taxes and fees this year, or about $213 more than they did on a home worth that much last year – enough to get about 19 dozen Tim Hortons doughnuts or an annual child’s pass at the new Morinville Leisure Centre once it opens. Of the total amount, some $2,196.32 is municipal tax, $776.02 is for schools, $28.60 is for seniors, and $1,514.63 is for utilities.
Turner said Morinville was about a month away from opening its biggest capital project ever and the operational impact of that leisure centre accounted for about 2.5 per cent of this tax hike. (The rest was due to inflation.) The town’s split mill rate would help make Morinville more sustainable and was also one of the lowest split rates in the capital region.
Coun. Sarah Hall also supported the split rate, noting business owners could write off expenses in ways homeowners could not.
“Our residents have been taking the (tax) burden far too long,” she said.
Tax notices are to be mailed out May 1 and are due June 30.
