Alberta Environment officials say they want to talk to St. Albert about how its proposed Municipal Development Plan could affect Lois Hole Park.
City council hit pause on second reading for the new Flourish Municipal Development Plan March 15 in part because it heard concerns that the plan could adversely affect Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park.
Those concerns, raised by the Big Lake Environment Support Society (BLESS), involved three chunks of land near the park, BLESS spokesperson Tony Druett said in an interview. BLESS first identified these problem lands in late December 2020 and spoke with city administrators and councillors about them earlier this year.
The first was a strip of land south of Meadowview Drive. The current MDP flagged it for residential development, but the new one marked it for industrial or office-based businesses.
Katie Mahoney, senior long-range planner with the city, said administration proposed this change as it made little sense to have a strip of residential land in this area, as it would be surrounded by industrial development on the other side of the road and isolated from schools, shops, and other services.
Druett said BLESS opposed putting industrial development here as it is near the north shore of Big Lake, which is a major breeding site and staging area for migratory birds and slated for park development under the city’s 2018 Red Willow Park West master plan. Meadowview Drive also provides a scenic view of Big Lake, one that would be replaced by a view of warehouses if this change was approved.
Druett also flagged the draft plan’s proposal to designate a roughly 36-hectare parcel south of the Lois Hole Park parking lot for industrial/business development. This land is owned by the province and slated under the 2019 Lois Hole Park management plan to be the home of a future environmental learning centre. BLESS believed the draft MDP should mark this area as Major Open Spaces to reflect the province’s plans.
Mahoney noted that this land was already identified for industrial growth under the current MDP, and that such a designation would not stop the province from using the land as a park.
The third chunk of land is a 24-hectare parcel owned by the Cooke family next to the aforementioned 36-hectare block. Slated for industrial growth, Druett said BLESS would prefer this land to be marked for parks or homes, as it is highly visible from Lois Hole Park.
Representatives from the Cooke family did not respond to a request for comment on the MDP by the time this story was written.
In an email, Alberta Environment and Parks press secretary Jess Sinclair said government officials plan to meet with St. Albert administrators in the week of March 24 to talk about the draft MDP and its plans for Lois Hole Park.
Coun. Jacquie Hansen said council would consider changes to the MDP at its April 19 meeting, one of which would likely address the Meadowview Drive lands.
Details on the proposed MDP changes can be viewed at stalbert.ca/dev/mdp.
