The City of St. Albert is reporting even residential and non-residential growth this year, which officials say is due to the economic downturn.
On Tuesday, city council members got a look at the 2019 tax rates and saw the city had a slower year for non-residential growth than in past years, resulting in an even growth rate for both non-residential and residential tax rates.
Greg Dahlen, director of assessment and taxation for the City of St. Albert, said equal growth on both sides of the tax split is not concerning for one year.
“For this year I don’t believe it’s a concern,” Dahlen said.
“A very stagnant non-residential year would be cause for concern but that’s not what occurred.”
The city will need to keep attracting larger businesses, like the AGLC or large car dealerships, to keep up with the steady residential growth in the city and to make sure the needle is moving in the desired direction for the tax split, Dahlen told council.
“We have been very lucky with that over the last seven to eight years. But I think as the economy has slowed a bit, especially on the industrial side, there is not a lot of new construction and development happening in the industrial park areas right now,” Dahlen said.
Although one year of even growth is not cause for concern, several years of this pattern will result in higher residential taxes in the city. The city continues to work towards a goal of attracting more businesses to the community so the tax burden is lifted off the shoulders of residents.
St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said she wasn’t too concerned about the slower non-residential growth for the year, noting the slow economy over the last few years.
“I don’t think it's unexpected with the economy the way it is. We still have growth,” Heron said. Residential tax growth increased by 2.65 per cent and non-residential grew by 2.64 per cent.
“I know when the economy picks up St. Albert will be there to catch whatever we can.”
Heron said that steady growth on the residential side is good news and the effort the city is making to attract businesses will help the non-residential side continue to blossom.
Heron said in 2012 the city opened its own economic development office, which is tasked with bringing businesses to the community.
The mayor said the city focuses on making it easy for businesses to open in the city and keeps an eye on what it takes to keep them in the community.
“We have to have an idea of what our current businesses want,” Heron said, noting the city needs to know where businesses want to expand.
“We work with our home-based businesses to see if they are ready to branch out and take on some brick and mortar space. And then for any new businesses we have to have land.”
Heron said the south side of Riel Park is ready and waiting for businesses to move in. Down the line the employment lands, once serviced, will be a viable option for businesses to locate.
“We are aware of what we need to do and we are tackling it as we can,” Heron said.
Another thing that will help the city with non-residential growth will be a new Municipal Development Plan (MDP), Heron said, which the city plans to have completed this year.
“If somebody is looking to invest or build in St. Albert, the first document they are going to go to is the MDP so we are going to have to have some good language in that document that talks about what kind of sectors we want to attract and what kind of policies are in place to accommodate them, etc.,” Heron said.
On top of the city’s own economic development department working to bring in new businesses, Heron said the new regional economic development board Edmonton Global is getting started to help attract new companies to the area.
The steady residential growth this year was a good thing, Heron said, because it makes growth easier to plan for.
“I welcome all growth. I like the way that St. Albert is growing. We are bringing in both residential and non-residential,” Heron said.
“Slow growth is fine as long as it’s predictable. Our growth rate is fairly stable so we know when to build (things like) a new fire hall,” Heron said, adding it is a manageable way to grow.
