The action plan to implement recommendations in the St. Albert Trail Improvement Plan was accepted by council for information – but not without some criticism from the mayor and a councillor.
Both Mayor Nolan Crouse and Coun. Cathy Heron voted against a motion for council to receive the action plan as information on Tuesday night. Couns. Malcolm Parker, Wes Brodhead, Roger Lemieux and Len Bracko voted to accept it for information, and Coun. Cam MacKay was absent from the meeting.
Brian Brost, a business manager from the city’s planning and engineering services department, presented the report to council. The plan outlines actions related to accomplishing several of the 16 short, medium and long-term goals developed by the task force for improving St. Albert Trail. Some action sections were left blank, while others outlined items that are already in progress.
Brost noted there are potential synergies with other plans where some of the actions could be worked in. The report noted an overall design concept could be considered as part of an initiative like the municipal development plan when it’s next revamped, the land use bylaw review, the LRT functional alignment study or the community sustainability plan.
Crouse wanted to know how requirements for sidewalks could live past this council.
“This has to be in place for the next hundred years. How do we do that?” he asked administration. He said he thinks the work already done has been making a difference along the busy roadway, but expressed a desire to see an overarching policy instead of dealing with “one-offs.”
Parker made the motion to accept the report as information and said he thinks it’s a “kick-start” for improvements along the trail.
“Well it might not be perfect, it certainly gives us some kind of direction,” Parker said. He speculated it was likely council would start to see more details on the actions when project charters and businesses cases are presented during budget time.
Brodhead asked when the full plan would be brought forward to council.
“I was looking forward to reading it,” he said.
Heron, meanwhile, said this would be the first time she would vote against accepting an item for information.
“I feel like the action plans presented are a little lacking,” she said, also railing against waiting for plans like the land use bylaw review in 2016 to tackle the issues. She noted she was on the task force that developed the improvement plan and the people on it worked hard.
