Last weeks
St. Albert - Sturgeon County Intermunicipal Affairs Committee
Most of the St. Albert & Sturgeon County councils met (virtually) for our regularly scheduled meeting. This one was fairly brief as some of the big issues that we’ve dealt with, like annexation, are in their final stages of approval.
Arts Development Advisory Committee Meeting
This second meeting of the committee was an interesting one, focusing on a grant for youth arts activities and education. The committee recommended some housekeeping changes to the grant to align with our new Arts bylaw, and they look forward to awarding grants in the spring. They also recommended a deep dive into the grant policy to consider more significant changes.
Public Open House – Re-districting application: 2 Sir Winston Churchill Avenue
A few members of Council attended this virtual open house for a proposed redistricting for a commercial property in Grandin along Sir Winston Churchill Ave. Proposed changes would potentially allow more business types into the strip mall and could allow redevelopment that it a bit higher than the current use. There weren’t many members of the public in attendance, and there weren’t any significant concerns brought forward, so it will be interesting to see how this progresses.
Homeland Housing Board Meeting
Homeland met (virtually) for our regularly scheduled meeting. There were no decisions made at this meeting, but we did get an update on advocacy for vaccination at some of our properties. We’ll be meeting again next week to finalize our strategic plan. I also continue to go into Morinville periodically for required paperwork, and I meet with the ED most weeks to touch-base about any emergent issues.
Agenda highlights
Revised Intent to Annex - City of Edmonton
This motion is to “direct Administration to revise the annexation boundary through submission of a revised Intent to Annex” for Edmonton lands that are on the St. Albert side of the Henday, between 137th Ave and Ray Gibbon, and would have to be serviced by St. Albert.
Range Road 260: MDP, Renaming and ASP Amendments (1st Reading)
These motions are to set the public hearing date for an update to the Area Structure Plan and Municipal Development Plan to allow for uses that are compatible with the new community amenities campus and to rename the neighbourhood. The proposed new name is “Cherot”, which is the family name of early land owners in St. Albert. This neighbourhood will be the second c-letter neighbourhood in St. Albert if the motion passes 3rd reading. “Emile and Celestine [Cherot]… emigrated to Canada in 1911 from France. The Cherot family owned about 112 acres of land around the St. Albert and Edmonton boundaries for farming operations. As their enterprise grew, the family also acquired River Lot C, outside of St. Albert to the west, for pasturing livestock and for more farming operations…. [The developer] finds the name ‘Cherot’ suitable from a marketing perspective.”
Letter of Support for Active Communities Outdoor Facilities Project
This motion is to provide a letter of support to ACA with the intent that they would include it in their grant submissions to higher levels of government. Although the original motion included a statement that the City would also provide administrative support, this was removed.
ACA’s vision to build a 2-rink outdoor facility accessible to the public for free, but without the need for municipal support is a fantastic idea (we need ice, and it would be amazing to have this at no cost to the city!), but it’s not typical for Council to provide letters of support for private projects. Private groups all over the city receive these grants without a letter of support all the time. It will be interesting to see if Council supports this motion because if we start getting more of these requests, it will mean an increased workload for staff who have to prepare background information for Council to consider.
This is a brief and incomplete overview of our meetings, with my personal comments sprinkled in - In no way are my opinions representative of the official direction of council or the City of St. Albert. Please let me know of any typos or errors. Members of the public can also register to speak if they have information to present to council. Full agenda packages can be found on the stalbert.ca website.
