St. Albert city council has hit pause on plans for recently annexed lands from Sturgeon County, with councillors saying they want more involvement in how the lands are outlined for future development.
City administration presented an amendment to St. Albert’s Municipal Development Plan (MDP), named Flourish, during the May 16 council meeting. The high-level planning document guides St. Albert as it grows to a population of 100,000. Other levels of planning, such as area structure plans, are based on this broader guideline.
Lyndsay Francis, a senior long-range planner for the City, outlined the areas the City intends for employment (land targeted for light industrial development); areas the City has pinpointed for residential growth; and mixed-use nodes — areas designed for multiple purposes, including housing and commercial and retail use.
Francis said the City based the amendments off studies conducted as part of the annexation application process, including public engagement through open houses and the City’s cultivate the conversation website.
In addition to outlining future land use, the amendment introduced new policies for the MDP, including a policy that would allow agricultural activities to occur within the annexation area until the lands are used for urban growth and development.
Another key policy would work towards achieving a tax assessment split of 60 per cent residential assessment and 40 per cent non-residential assessment within the annexation area “to promote sustainability and reduce the reliance on residential taxes,” Francis said.
Land owner reps voice concerns about City plan
Pearce Shewchuk, a representative from Nichols Applied Management, and Constance Courley, a manager with ISL Engineering and Land Services, both addressed council on behalf of Frederick Kranz.
Kranz owns land within the annexation boundary — west of Carrot Creek, below Villeneuve Road — as well as lands east of Carrot Creek and already within St. Albert, which are designated residential as part of the future Avenir neighbourhood. The City’s proposed MDP amendment designates Kranz’s land to the west of Carrot Creek as employment area.
Courley argued the land is more suitable to residential development than industrial.
“We know that other lands lying west of Carrot Creek and north of Villeneuve Road on map three [the urban structure MDP map] are designated neighbourhood for residential use,” Courley said. “The same rationale and designation should be applied to the Kranz lands south of Villeneuve.”
Additionally, Shewchuk said studies performed by Nichols indicate that the market conditions don’t exist to support theCity’s tax assessment split targets of 60/40.
The absorption rate of non-residential land necessary to achieve the 60/40 split is more than 280-per-cent higher than the historic rate, and 560-per-cent higher than the non-residential market analysis St. Albert commissioned in late 2021, Shewchuk said.
“There doesn’t appear to be any connection between the 60/40 policy objective and any market analysis or in recognition of the city’s role in the broader Capital Region,” Shewchuk said.
Council members express concerns with proposed amendment
Mayor Cathy Heron said she had been excited about the opportunity for council to plan the future of the annexation lands, noting that she agrees with the general vision the City has for the lands but would like council to be more engaged in the reasoning behind each decision.
"Where and why is where we've been left out," Heron said.
Similarly, Coun. Sheena Hughes said council should play more of a role in outlining the future of St. Albert as the city grows.
“I understand the … reasoning for it at the time of requesting annexation,” Hughes said of the City’s plans borne through the application process. “But now that we have it in our lands, I think we need to do further planning to really make sure that this is where we want to go.”
Vicki Dodge, a City planner involved in St. Albert’s annexation application and MDP amendment plans, noted planning for the annexation lands has been taking place since 2017.
“There was so much work done to analyze these lands for future growth opportunities,” Dodge said. “The MDP really is a visioning document — it’s aspirational in some regards.”
Dodge said area structure plans and neighbourhood plans would provide the opportunity for more precise planning down the road.
“The level of detail that I think you’re seeking now, it’s typically not that granular of detail at the MDP stage,” Dodge said. “I just wanted to offer that up as a reminder that there was a lot of detailed analysis done that is reflected in this proposed amendment here today.”
Coun. Mike Killick echoed members of council in wanting more time to discuss the lands.
“I know this is trying to be directional, but it just seems to me that if we approve all of this today, we should have had a more detailed workshop to really discuss what we’re being asked to approve here,” Killick said.
Kristina Peter, St. Albert’s planning branch manager, said council’s choice to put a pause on amending the MDP to include the annexation lands wouldn’t require the City to create a holding zone and incorporate it into the MDP.
“Instead, we would just be silent on the lands … we would just remain with the exact same MDP and that would give us the opportunity to have the conversation at a future date," Peter said.
Council ultimately voted to postpone the decision on the annexation lands. As a public hearing had been opened for the proposed amendment, council voted to adjourn the public hearing to a later date, rather than closing the hearing.
David Leflar, St. Albert’s chief legislative officer, told council that this distinction means council will be able to engage with the public on the MDP amendment in the time period leading up to the public hearing being re-opened.
