Development in St. Albert and regional transit will be on the menu Thursday morning as the St. Albert Chamber of Commerce hosts another Big Issue Roundtable.
This breakfast – the second of four planned – will feature Todd Wyman, St. Albert’s director of the growth initiative team, as well as City of Edmonton councillor Don Iveson.
Wyman will be giving the city’s perspective on development after the Urban Development Institute got its opportunity to discuss issues such as offsite levies at April’s roundtable.
“We wanted to get a really balanced view of someone else’s perspective other than the developers’,” said chamber president and CEO Lynda Moffat. “So we’re inviting Todd Wyman to talk about the whole development process.”
Wyman said he’ll be touching on several issues with respect to development in St. Albert, such as development agreements, levies and where there might be incentives or changes to certain processes.
“I think what we want to do is expand St. Albert in a responsible, fiscally responsible way that does respect existing residents while providing an opportunity to bring more industrial and residential development to St. Albert to help round out the city,” Wyman said.
Iveson will take the stage after Wyman. The Edmonton councillor will discuss how the Capital Region Board (CRB) has worked over the last two years, as well as give an overview of regional transit and expansion of LRT.
Moffat noted Iveson’s appearance is particularly timely given that St. Albert city council recently declined a $534,000 functional alignment study that would have examined how to extend LRT, once it reaches St. Albert, to the north end of the city.
Moffat noted the chamber’s disappointment that council did not vote in favour of the study.
“We’re saying we need to do this plan so that when the city is growing and developing, it can do so accordingly,” Moffat said.
Iveson said he’ll touch on the expansion of LRT to St. Albert’s southern border, as well as several other transit-related issues.
“I’ll be zeroing in on some of the transportation planning that we’re doing for the region and in particular the long-term aspirations of regional transit,” Iveson said.
Other points of his include more intermunicipal service and park and ride stations, including St. Albert’s planned south park and ride, which is still awaiting provincial GreenTRIP funding.
“I’ll be able to show people where it is on the map and speak to the importance of it in the whole network,” Iveson said.
The Big Issue Roundtable starts at 7:45 a.m. Thursday in the Grandin Room at St. Albert Inn & Suites. Call 780-458-2833 for details.
