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Badger Lands
Notice given by:Councillor Hughes
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BUDGET POSTPONED MOTION:
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That the Badger Lands ASP portion of PLAN-006 is postponed to 2023.
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Administration’s Understanding of the Intent of the Motion:
That City Administration will remove 43 City Annex North from the St. Albert West Area Structure Plan (ASP) study area, formerly known as the Badger Lands. Administration will not undergo any additional planning studies for this area prior to 2023.
Operational or Organizational Impacts if Motion is Approved:
In 2018, Administration presented the Project Charter for the Area Structure Plan for Employment Lands & Badger Lands Plan-006 to Council. This project was assumed to be a 2-year project, with a total budget of $983,300.00. Within the 2019 budget, Council approved $110,000.00 to initiate background studies for the City owned lands within the Lakeview Business District and 43 City Annex North. During the 2021 budget deliberations, Council approved another portion of the funding request totaling $400,000.00, to enable the next stage. In the 2022 budget deliberations, Administration requested $415,000.00 for the remainder of the project budget.
The St. Albert West Area Structure Plan Request for Proposal (RFP) is currently posted on Alberta’s Purchasing Connection (APC). The St. Albert West Area Structure Plan is the new name for Area Structure Plan for Employment Lands and Badger Lands Plan-006. The scope of the St. Albert West ASP includes the lands contained within 43 City Annex North. The RFP was posted on November 19, 2021 and responses to the RFP are due on December 13, 2021. Based on review of scope based on this motion, as well as initial RFP feedback, Administration believes that the necessary work for the West Area Structure Plan in full could be accomplished with a reduced 2022 Budget Request of $200,000, and an update clause to the RFP posting on APC. Should the proposed motion be approved, the City of St. Albert will remove the RFP from the APC, and re-scope the project plan. The City will then repost the RFP. It is anticipated that this will delay the contract award by approximately 3 months.
In addition to the project delays, with 43 City Annex North taken out of the project area, it will leave a small portion of the undeveloped lands on the west side of St. Albert as unplanned. Within the current scope of the St. Albert West Area Structure Plan project, development of the high-level land uses, servicing infrastructure, and transportation networks will be designed to ensure a cohesive and integrated development pattern. Removal of these lands from the study area will leave a small unplanned piece, which would result in increased planning and development costs to the site in the future.
Financial Implications of Motions:
There are several financial impacts regarding this motion. Regarding the actual plan development, this change will result in additional staff time to redesign the St. Albert West (ASP) study and to redo the RFP. This will impact both the Planning and Purchasing staffing resources.
Removal of 43 City Annex North would result in some initial project cost savings, but the savings would be minimal as compared to the additional costs and staffing resources to study and plan these lands independently in 2023, or some later date. Exact costs regarding the savings are currently unknown, as there are no consultant submittals to the RFP at this point. However, it would be anticipated that the costs/time initially saved would be eclipsed by the costs/time to undertake the ASP for 43 City Annex North independently.
Stakeholder Consultations:
As the RFP is currently posted on APC, vendors and consultants are currently reviewing and preparing their proposed project submittals. These submittals are time intensive and costly activities, especially for such a complex RFP. To remove the posting, with less than one week before the project closed could have reputational impacts, and cause consultants to pause before responding to future RFPs. This could result in less submittals, possibly reducing the competitive nature of this process.
Background:
In 2020, the City of St. Albert responded to Council Motion 18-065 to undertake background studies in preparation for the development of an Area Structure Plan for both the Lakeview Business District and the Badger Lands (43 City Annex North). These studies included the following:
• Geotechnical Report,
• Topographic Survey,
• Flood Mapping,
• Environmental Site Assessment (ESA),
• Natural Area Assessment, and
• Historic Resource Statement of Justification.
These studies were completed by Stantec in Q1 2021. These background studies enable the City of St. Albert to develop detailed planning documents (ASPs) to support future development.
In Q3 2021, the Planning Branch created a project plan and drafted the RFP for the St. Albert West ASP. Purchasing reviewed the RFP and posted it to APC in Q4 2021. Awarding of this contract is anticipated in Q1 2022.
Within the development of the RFP, Administration did not assume future land uses for the Lakeview Business District and 43 City Annex North. Administration did include past Council motions and project background on the lands in question. As written, the RFP includes the following text regarding 43 City Annex.
In June 2021, St. Albert Council approved the investigation of a utility development which incorporates a 15 megawatts solar farm development in Badger Lands, as another opportunity for generating revenue for the City. The solar farm is planned to start design and construction in July 2022 and become operational by April 2023. However, this timeline is preliminary and subject to change upon equipment selection, costs, future infrastructure plans, and City input.
An amendment to the North Ridge Area Structure Plan (for the land contained within 43 City Annex North) will be required of the Consultant to accommodate the planned solar farm, prior to its development, however this planned development may be subject to change solely at the City Council’s decision.
Based upon this text, Council debate regarding the future land uses will occur when considering the amendment of the North Ridge Phase 2 ASP and the adoption of the St. Albert West ASP. This note also highlights that while there has been past direction from Council, no changes to the statutory plans have occurred, which should occur prior to development.
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Report Date: December 2, 2021
Author(s): Kristina Peter
Committee/Department: Planning and Development
Deputy Chief Administrative Officer: Kerry Hilts
Chief Administrative Officer: Kevin Scoble