While city council has given the go-ahead to pursue planning for the proposed 1,500-stall south transit centre/park and ride, which could become the terminus for Edmonton's northwest light rail transit (LRT) line, the city still has several challenges to overcome to bring the park and ride to fruition.
Council voted Monday to work with Edmonton both collaboratively and financially on the northwest leg of the LRT and jointly approach the provincial government for access to the land on which the south transit centre would be located, near the old Newman College site.
"That is subject to a lot of things aligning," said Chris Jardine, acting city manager.
The first problem facing St. Albert is basic — it doesn't own the land, as it's located on Edmonton's side of Anthony Henday Drive, within the Transportation Utility Corridor (TUC). That fact, plus construction of the ring road, has already delayed St. Albert's application to the GreenTRIP program for funding.
"We applied for GreenTRIP funding. Alberta Transportation said, 'You can't apply for something you don't own,'" said Guy Boston, general manager of planning and engineering.
The province also shelved St. Albert's GreenTRIP application until the northwest leg of Anthony Henday Drive was finished. With that portion scheduled to open Tuesday, the province will be able to reconsider the application, but the city isn't sure if it will have to re-apply or simply remind the province.
"We might have to poke them with a stick to say, 'Now we're here.' It might just be that simple," Jardine said. "Clearly from Monday night's meeting we intend to actively engage the province."
How much the province wants for the land could pose another challenge. Given it is located within the TUC and cannot be used for any other purpose, the city believes the province should hand over the land for little more than a dollar.
"In the past the province has said [the land] will have to be transferred at market value but what's the market value of land that can't be developed into anything else?" Mayor Nolan Crouse asked rhetorically. "I'm hoping we can do an agreement with the province. We'd like to have it transferred at no cost.
"To buy land from Transportation for a park and ride is ludicrous."
Boston said the parcel's location in the TUC implicitly states it should be made available for a nominal cost.
"Transit is a major component of 'transportation."
Four partners
The number of parties involved could also make co-ordination challenging; St. Albert, Edmonton, Alberta Infrastructure and Alberta Transportation must all sit down together to negotiate the land transfer.
"I drafted a letter to [Edmonton] Mayor Stephen Mandel yesterday, informing him of our council decision and I have asked my executive assistant to set up a meeting between the ministers of Infrastructure and Transportation and Mayor Mandel," Crouse said Thursday. "We have already had a meeting on this when [Luke] Ouellette was minister. I sent a letter to the province too."
The parcel for the south transit centre is one of seven within the TUC Edmonton is pursuing.
"Their LRT terminus would be to our park and ride, so they're looking to try to make the same deal," Boston said.
If both cities can pry the land away from the province, myriad other details must be negotiated between the two cities, including servicing, aligning passenger fares and transfers between the two jurisdictions and what any kind of cost-sharing agreement might look like.
St. Albert acknowledges its residents will benefit the most and anticipates shouldering the bulk of the cost, but only if its GreenTRIP application is approved. The last estimate for the total cost of construction of the south transit centre, prior to the public release of the 2012 capital budget, was approximately $30 million.
"There's no way we can do this if we don't get a significant GreenTRIP grant," said Jardine. "Our ability to spend $30 million is quite limited.
