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Developers should speak at public hearings

The public hearing respecting the 70 Arlington Dr. affordable housing development demonstrates that our city council just can’t get it right when it comes to public hearings.

The public hearing respecting the 70 Arlington Dr. affordable housing development demonstrates that our city council just can’t get it right when it comes to public hearings.

Residents attending the hearing on Monday night were surprised to hear councillors asking questions of administration that revealed that many concessions had been given to the developer and that council was not aware of many of the issues. Topping that off was the fact that Apollo Developments’ representative Andy Banack was not required to answer any questions because he had not registered as a speaker.

In the first instance, council has boxed itself into a corner with a policy that recommends “council should defer involvement or engagement in discussions on planning and development projects with either citizens or developers until the public hearings.”

In my view, this is just plain stupid. I expect our council to be briefed by administration and respond to many obvious questions that might be resolved prior to putting the public through the display we witnessed on Monday.

Further, how can we have an open public hearing when the developer does not appear to give his own brief and respond to questions? This makes a joke of the whole process. In my role as a consultant on land development I have attended many public hearings in other municipalities and without exception, the developer is required to be present to answer questions. Here in St. Albert, we apparently do things different.

Council must change this antiquated policy that favours the developer and approve an amendment that requires the developer to be present at the public hearing and respond to questions. After all, it is their development that is being scrutinized and how can we say that we are conducting an open and informative public hearing when we don’t hear from the developer?

Bob Russell, St. Albert

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