City council is forcing Landrex to team up with city administration and explore options for the developer’s Erin Ridge North Phase 2 project.
Landrex had applied to reduce the commercial area in its development north of the Costco store and Neil Ross Road. Council, in a move led by the mayor, wants to see options to preserve the proposed commercial corridor’s current size along St. Albert Trail.
“That piece of land was annexed on the understanding that we needed non-residential to be a more sustainable community,” said Mayor Nolan Crouse.
The second phase of Erin Ridge North is expected to include both commercial and multi-family residential development. Landrex had first proposed to reduce its 25 hectares of designated commercial land in Erin Ridge North to 11.4 hectares in April 2014.
During that meeting, council was told that a market survey done by the developer showed there wasn’t a need for as much commercial as originally planned. A retail market analysis by the city, however, said the city needed more retail services.
Administration supported the proposal at the time over concerns by the developer that there was no sufficient demand for more commercial development. It also argued that a smaller commercial area may bring more immediate returns in tax dollars to the city than a large site.
Council completed first reading of the bylaw that would allow the commercial reduction. But they never went further. On Monday, Landrex was still looking for approval but now also wanted to add two hectares of commercial by reducing its multi-family site.
Asked why the developer wanted to reduce the commercial site in general, Jim Sheasgreen, vice-president of operations for Landrex, said there are several other commercial developments in the area. Landrex wants to cater to local demand with smaller stores, he said.
“We just feel that it’s more neighbourhood type developments … that would be best suited for this area,” he said.
Lynda Moffat, CEO and president of the St. Albert and District Chamber of Commerce, said the community cannot afford to lose lands zoned for non-residential use.
Already, taxpayers are reaching the point where they cannot afford to pay residential taxes, she said. Non-residential taxes help to ease the burden, she said.
She urged the city to work with Landrex on other options for non-residential development, and also to send a clear message on this application and those to come “that developers are expected to develop commercially zoned land for those purposes only.”
“Once it’s given up for residential development, there is no going back,” she said.
The mayor asked that the matter be referred to administration to work with the developer and propose to council “appropriate statutory amendments” that preserve the commercial corridor. He added that other developers are likely watching council’s decisions closely, maybe hoping to shrink their own corridors.
“I am hoping that doesn’t occur,” he said.
Councillors Cam McKay and Sheena Hughes also wanted to see the fiscal market analysis Landrex had prepared. Hughes said she favoured preserving the commercial corridor because it created more buffer between the houses and St. Albert Trail.
Coun. Wes Brodhead agreed with Moffat that the city needed to work towards the “equitable split” between taxes.
“In the short term, it may not be as developable but we have to make decisions that are best long term,” said Coun. Tim Osborne.
