St. Albert city council has given administration approval to, if absolutely necessary, expropriate a 32.2-hectare piece of land on the city's north end as part of the development of Fowler Way.
A provincially regulated practice, expropriation involves a government obtaining land for public use from a private landowner for compensation, regardless of whether the private landowner wants to sell the land.
Coun. Mike Killick said land expropriation is not a typical practice for the city.
“It's not common at all,” Killick said. “The city's approach is to first try and [take] a business approach to it — a simple purchase that everyone agrees to is much cleaner and that's the desired direction that we would always try and go first.”
“[Expropriation] only becomes necessary when all other avenues have been exhausted, and I think we've been trying to work with this particular landowner for a couple of years.”
Council heard on April 16 the city may need to expropriate the parcel as part of its planning work for Fowler Way, a future arterial roadway connecting St. Albert Trail to Ray Gibbon Drive, although it would prefer to avoid doing so.
“Fowler Way was first introduced within the 2008 Transportation Master Plan (TMP) and reconfirmed with the 2015 TMP as a needed east-west arterial roadway in the northwest of the city to accommodate planned new development and growth,” city transportation manager Dean Schick said in an email.
“It will be a four-lane arterial roadway that accommodates active modes [of transportation] with new sidewalk and trails, and will operate with public transit and support goods movements as a designated truck route, connecting Ray Gibbon Drive to St. Albert Trail,” Schick wrote.
Schick also said to date the city has spent $2.4 million on purchasing necessary land and road right-of-way access rights. Council has approved a total budget of $8.3 million for land acquisition for this project.
“In terms of land impacted by [Fowler Way], there's a total of 11 parcels and 10 landowners, which is inclusive of the city ourselves as owners of parcels,” Schick told council on April 16.
“To date for this project, there has been typically a very strong and amicable discussion with landowners and partnership in delivering Fowler Way, and administration has been granted access to properties to perform the necessary technical and environmental assessments that will inform all the engineering and design work required to advance the construction.”
“Administration, however, has had some constraints [and] unsuccessful engagement with some landowners largely just resulting in a lack of communication or opportunity to engage.”
One such unsuccessful attempt to engage a landowner about a sale is in regard to the owners of 54219 Range Rd. 255, just north of Villeneuve Road and west of Jensen Lakes.
According to a land title for the property obtained by the Gazette, one family has owned the land since 1976. The Gazette was unable to contact the landowners.
Although council unanimously gave administration the necessary approval to begin the land expropriation process for the property, Schick said in the email the city's priority is to try to work with the landowner further before expropriation.
“Emphasis on engagement will continue to be a priority for the city, to allow for the next steps of land acquisition to be negotiated,” he said.
Marta Caufield, the city's director of legal, legislative, and records services, said once the process has started, expropriating the land could take between six to 10 months, and could increase project costs.
“It is the city's hope that a negotiated agreement could be reached between the city and the landowner, but if this is not possible then this is expected to result in increased costs,” Caufield said.
“The important thing to remember is that the city's intention is to avoid the associated steps and costs of expropriation by entering into a negotiated agreement with the landowner.”
In fact, the last time council approved a similar motion giving administration approval to start an expropriation process was in 2019, in which the city was looking to acquire land adjacent to Heritage Park in the Mission neighbourhood. Expropriation eventually wasn't necessary, as council approved a motion in 2023 giving administration the go-ahead to purchase the land at market value.
Councillors Killick and Sheena Hughes both said they think the city is too far along in the land acquisition process for the city to re-align Fowler Way to avoid the rural property in question.
“This is the missing piece,” Hughes said. “I really don't know how it could be completed without going through that section right now.”
“When you look at the alignment, I don't even know how you would redirect it.”
Schick told council on April 16 that if all goes according to schedule, the detailed design work of Fowler Way will take place in 2027, followed by a two year construction job starting in 2028 and wrapping up in 2030.
