RED DEER – The unprecedented and unplanned-for growth in many Alberta communities is overwhelming municipal planners.
But rather than building more acreage communities, Calgary alderman Rick McIver thinks people should be encouraged to live in the city in an environmentally sustainable way with proper sewage treatment.
One solution is to squeeze more people into an acre of serviced land, McIver told the recent Synergy Alberta conference in Red Deer.
At one time Calgary approved community developments of three to five units per acre. The current standard is six to eight and a development in south Calgary was recently approved for 11.5 units per acre to reduce sprawl.
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“We have started, but we have a long way to go,” McIver said.
Figuring out where to put all the newcomers has Red Deer struggling to keep up, said Howard Thompson, the city’s land and development manager.
“The growth is quickly outpacing what our projections are,” Thompson said.
“We are going to continue to grow. There are attributes to urban living, quality of life issues, so we are continuing to attract people here and we are not going to be able to stop that, so we have to be able to plan for that growth.”
Red Deer is Alberta’s third largest city with 83,000 people, up from 58,000 10 years ago. City planners anticipate a population of 100,000 by 2010 and 300,000 in 50 years.
The city takes up 27.5 sections of land and plans to add more. However, there are development constraints, partly because Red Deer County has its own development plans. Other towns in the area such as Sylvan Lake and Blackfalds are also experiencing frenzied growth and all want to annex more land from the rural municipality.
Other constraints include Red Deer’s topography, where one side of the city has a steep elevation, making it difficult to service. The city would prefer to expand to the northeast where 10,000 to 15,000 people could be housed.
The impact of energy development around the city causes conflicts because council does not hear much about what is going on unless an application is issued within 11/2 kilometres of the city limits.
Oil and gas developments require a minimum 100 metre setback that prevents future development. Larger energy developments and sour gas wells may require as much as 500 metre buffer zones.
For Red Deer County, the prime development goal is to protect viable agricultural operations.
“Agriculture land is not land waiting for a higher and better use,” said John van der Bank, head of the county-urban planning and development team.
The county has been working on a strategy since 2001 to accommodate development with a low impact on agricultural operations.
“There is a significant difference in reducing the amount of sprawl and controlling development that does not compromise the viability of agriculture operations,” he said.
The county is about 4,000 sq. kilometres, of which 90 percent is used for agriculture. The 2001 census reported 30,000 residents with a 2.5 percent growth rate.
The county has decided to control the types and locations of developments, preferring to see the majority of projects happen south and southwest of Red Deer in existing towns and hamlets. Actual plans have not been adopted yet because of a dispute with the city over land.
“Red Deer County does not believe it will be 100 percent successful in this venture,” van der Bank said.
The county is designating parcels of land for potential housing and industrial development because it does not want piecemeal subdivisions of two to five acre parcels with large homes that take the land out of production.
However, the municipality realizes the difficulty in telling a farmer he cannot subdivide to recoup his investment.
The county is considering ways for landowners to sell development rights so they can earn a profit from the land and still keep it in production.
