City council approved Monday night a new agreement involving a Landrex subdivision that should see the withdrawal of a lawsuit filed against the city, but not before the development company added a new wrinkle to the situation.
City council approved Monday night a new agreement involving a Landrex subdivision that should see the withdrawal of a lawsuit filed against the city, but not before the development company added a new wrinkle to the situation.
Council eventually approved five recommendations that will allow Landrex to move forward with the next four phases of its Erin Ridge North subdivision. The city and the company have been conducting negotiations and managed last week to arrive at a development agreement.
But Landrex corporate counsel Gerry Wetch addressed council before it voted on Monday, asking that the company be allowed to start grading on St. Albert Trail and work on underground deep utilities before all of Landrex’s levies and its letter of credit were received.
“We’ve got a problem. It’s called a calendar,” Wetch said. “The most important thing was our construction schedule.”
Wetch told council it will take approximately three to four weeks to secure the required total for payable levies and the necessary letter of credit. The amount of money required – $10.6 million – requires approval from a lender in Toronto.
If Landrex is forced to wait the three to four weeks that process could take, it would find itself behind with respect to construction, Wetch said. So the company wanted council’s permission to proceed with grading and utilities work in the interim.
Considering the parties last met only May 24 to finalize their agreement, the proposal did not go over well with city administration.
“We were expecting Landrex to be 100 per cent in support of the agreement they supported last week,” said city manager Patrick Draper. “There would be no last minute changes.”
Mayor Nolan Crouse called a 30-minute recess to allow administration and Landrex time to try and work out an arrangement with respect to the developer’s request, but the sides were unable to do so.
Consequently, council passed all four recommendations as well as a fifth that gave Draper 30 days to negotiate and conclude any supplementary agreements with respect to grading and utilities.
“Landrex is anxious to move forward with this particular project. I cannot speak to how long it might take. This is the first we’ve seen it,” Draper said.
The remaining recommendations involve creating a development agreement for Landrex that will change if St. Albert changes how it collects offsite levies. Landrex will be required to pay the levies outlined in the current scheme but, if council passes new levies as a result of its ongoing talks with the Urban Development Institute, Landrex will become subject to those instead of the old levies.
The city will also create two new capital projects — one for a trunk line and one for a utility crossing – at a cost of $2.1 million and $303,000 respectively to bring services to the area.
Letter of credit
Larry Andrews, CEO of Landrex, said he was delivering a letter of credit to Draper Tuesday afternoon to try and speed along the grading and utilities process.
“We’re going to give him the opportunity to show that he is business-friendly. He says he’s for economic development, he says he’s business friendly – here’s a no-risk opportunity to step outside the traditional bureaucratic approach of St. Albert and indicate they are open for business,” Andrews said.
He added he didn’t know why this issue wasn’t discussed last week, but said other municipalities such as Edmonton typically accede to such requests.
“They recognize you can’t get final approval until the bank has signed off on a development agreement,” Andrews said.
He added the city and Landrex have resolved the outstanding lawsuit against the city – in which Landrex alleged it overpaid for levies in the first two phases of Erin Ridge North and also stated it did not want to pay any levies in for phase three – without any money changing hands.
“We’re satisfied administration is working with ourselves, with UDI and with all owners to ensure this occurs over the next several months,” Andrews said.
Andrews had previously said in February that Costco would build in the commercial area of Erin Ridge North if the two sides could negotiate a resolution. He indicated Costco is still on board, as is Loblaws.
“They and many other national tenants are working diligently to come to St. Albert,” he said.
