A number of delayed reports are a sign the city's administration is understaffed and overworked, said Mayor Nolan Crouse.
Administration asked for more time for three separate reports that were due at the end of March. These reports were an implementation plan for the Downtown Area Redevelopment Plan (DARP), an update to the city's flood plain report and a report outlining options for industrial land.
The mayor and councillors were particularly frustrated with the lack of movement on the industrial land issue. Council voted in April of last year to have administration compile a report by March 31, but the process is bogged down in studies.
First the city's economic development branch must figure out how much industrial land is required, then the planning department can start looking for an appropriate location, said director of planning and development Curtis Cundy.
The first such report should be available in May, prompting council to seek the second by late 2011.
Several councillors expressed confusion about the aims of the different studies and concern about the amount of time they will take.
"I'm just wondering if we're paralysis by analysis here. We've got some developers who want to move," said Coun. Wes Brodhead.
"Every time we do studies, it delays the whole process. We've studied this thing to death," said Coun. Malcolm Parker. "I think this council has to start really focusing on action."
Council will soon be placed in a position of having to assess a proposed industrial development before all the studies have been done. The proponents of Avenir and St. Albert Sports Village plan to appear before council in April to pursue the OK for a development with a mix of residential, industrial, commercial and recreational facilities in the city's northwest corner.
Avenir proponent David Bromley told council Monday he's frustrated with the lack of movement. Cundy told council that Avenir hasn't yet satisfied a direction that council laid out at its Jan. 17 meeting.
The situation is frustrating Crouse, who pledged during his election campaign to "turn red tape into green tape" but is himself stymied by the current situation.
Other reports
Part of the reason why the flood plain update is delayed is because of workload demands in planning and engineering, says a city report. The DARP implementation plan must wait until the completion of the 10-year capital plan that the city's finance committee will review in April and May.
"It feels like we're stalling things but I truly believe we'd have this in the proper order if we had staff," Crouse said.
The city recently began advertising for a senior planner, a new position that council agreed to fund during its fall budget deliberations, and expects to have a person in place by April 1, said Guy Boston, general manager of planning and engineering.
