St. Albert Minute: Issue 132

St. Albert Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of St. Albert politics

📅 This Week In St. Albert: 📅

• City Council will meet tomorrow at 9:30 am, and at 10:30 am it will resume the public hearing on the infill amendments to the Land Use Bylaw tied to the Housing Accelerator Fund, which was adjourned on September 15th. Council adjourned the hearing so Administration could prepare more information on the services, amenities, and infrastructure needed for growth in the St. Albert Trail commercial corridor district, but Administration says that information was still being compiled at the agenda deadline and will be presented at the meeting. Administration is recommending that Council close the hearing and give the bylaw all three readings the same day. Six delegations are registered to speak on the bylaw, including the St. Albert Firefighters and the St. Albert & District Chamber of Commerce. The agenda also carries more than 100 pages of additional written submissions from residents, most of them opposed. 
  
  
• Also on Council's agenda tomorrow is a motion appointing the Chief Administrative Officer as an inspector under the provincial Agricultural Pests Act and Weed Control Act. Municipalities are required to appoint inspectors, and Administration says a recent review of the City's bylaws and processes on Dutch elm disease found a gap in staff's authority to act under them. Once appointed, the Chief Administrative Officer would delegate that authority to City employees as needed. The provincially regulated pests include Dutch elm disease, Norway rats, rabies, and wild boar, while the regulated weeds range from garlic mustard and giant knapweed, which must be destroyed, to oxeye daisy and thistle, which must be controlled. Administration lists no financial impact, and says the alternative of amending the City's bylaws instead would take several months and leave the legal gap in place, limiting its ability to respond quickly to Dutch elm disease.
  
  
• The City broke ground on St. Albert's fourth fire station, located off St. Albert Trail and Neil Ross Road in the northeast end of the city. The station was approved in the 2020 capital budget and is expected to cost about $26.5 million, on land the City purchased in 2021. The City says development has increased response times and placed additional demand on existing fire halls, and it expects the new station to improve response times across the north end. The two-storey building will include two double deep bays for fire apparatus, accommodation for firefighter/paramedics, a decontamination room, and future administration space. It will also be the City's first building built to Green Globes certification, an environmental sustainability standard. The station is expected to open in 2028.
  
  
• The Alberta Court of Appeal has granted permission to appeal the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board's decision upholding the development permit for a mosque proposed by the Muslim Association of St. Albert in Campbell Business Park. The permit had been appealed to the Board, raising concerns about parking, traffic, and compatibility with surrounding businesses. The Board dismissed that appeal earlier this year, finding that the mosque, with a capacity of 530 people and 140 parking stalls, was compatible with the business park and consistent with City bylaws and plans. In a decision published Friday, September 25th, Justice Anne Kirker allowed the appeal to proceed on whether the Board failed to meaningfully engage with the Municipal Development Plan, the Area Structure Plan, and the Land Use Bylaw, including by dismissing the Area Structure Plan as outdated. The appeal will also consider whether the Board had to weigh the mosque against the development concept for the partially developed park, which is zoned for commercial and industrial use. 
  
  
• Edmonton Councillor Michael Janz is standing by his claim that St. Albert "kiboshed" a youth transitional housing facility, continuing his criticism of the city's lack of emergency shelters after Mayor Scott Olivieri called his initial comments short-sighted. Council never voted down a facility, but in March it rejected a motion to remove the Municipal Reserve designation on a parcel of land near downtown that could have been used for one. A City spokesperson said there are currently no plans to bring the facility back to Council, though work on youth transitional housing remains ongoing. Janz has called for a regional approach to public safety funded by pooling non-residential tax per capita across the region, citing a July 17th memo that puts non-residential assessment per capita at $29,626 in St. Albert, $34,153 in Edmonton, and $372,382 in Sturgeon County. He argued that Edmonton cannot continue to be the social safety net for the capital region. In a Facebook post, Olivieri said he expects Janz's plan to include strong advocacy to the Province, a willingness to collaborate with municipal partners, and all the facts behind the solutions he has advanced publicly. The City's housing needs assessment identified 262 people experiencing homelessness or housing instability in St. Albert in 2025.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

Do you think Edmonton-area municipalities should share more responsibility for homelessness and social services, including potentially sharing the costs?

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