ST. PAUL – The County and Town of St. Paul have both passed the first reading of a proposed bylaw that aims to attract investors and developers to the St. Paul region.
The two municipalities will each hold a public hearing in February before they proceed to second and third readings. The Town scheduled its public hearing on Feb. 24, while the County will hold its public hearing on Feb. 25.
In the Summer of 2021, the two municipalities started working on the St. Paul North Intermunicipal Area Structure Plan (IASP).
An Intermunicipal Area Structure Plan (IASP) provides a “long-term vision for the development of an area,” which involves outlining the steps taken to “advance that vision,” according to information from the Town and County of St. Paul.
The St. Paul IASP includes about 588.4 hectares located north of the Town. Some of the land is within the Town’s boundaries, while some falls within County’s boundaries.
On Jan. 24, the Alberta Transportation and Economic Corridors (ATEC) approved both the IASP and the Traffic Impact Assessment (TIA), allowing both municipalities to pass the first reading of the bylaw during their respective council meetings on Jan. 27.
The TIA is a report assessing the traffic potential of a proposed development, explained Aline Brousseau, the Town of St. Paul’s director of planning and legislative services, during the Town council meeting on Jan. 27.
Town of St. Paul CAO Steven Jeffery clarified to council that the TIA examines how future development could affect traffic patterns and flow as a community continues to grow, which he said may be the most complicated process of developing the IASP.
Development of the IASP was a long process, Jeffery acknowledged.
“A lot of back and forth. Sometimes two steps forward and five steps back,” he said. “But, happy to report that we were able to bring it to this point and actually have approval from [ATEC].”
Town of St. Paul Mayor Maureen Miller agreed, stating, “It [took] a lot of combined work [with the County] to get where we are today on this development.”
Miller said that if the IASP gets fully adopted, it would provide both municipalities economic development opportunities, which could potentially increase their revenues.
“As we’ve often said, our community is highly dependent on residential tax base,” Miller said, thus the need for a more diversified sources of taxation.
In a follow-up with Lakeland This Week, Miller said the IASP is designed to address roadblocks that often prevent development in a municipality.
A developer usually would have to conduct their own assessments, public engagements, and zoning research when they want to build a business, among other requirements. Developers sometimes also must approach both the municipality and the provincial government for development approvals.
These processes can take months, or even years.
Attracting investment can also be difficult due to this long process, Miller said. It involves marketing the potential of the region to developers or investors, which requires a plan.
“Can you imagine if a developer has been sitting for two years wanting to develop and we’re sitting without a plan?” she said. The developer would likely leave and take the business elsewhere, she added.
“This [IASP] is actually [about] making a positive plan for developers to choose our community to develop in, and removing as many rifts that we could off their development decision.”
But, with an IASP, a developer could simply choose an area that has already been zoned for future development, such as an industrial or a commercial zone, said Miller.
Also, “It allows [developers] to know what can be developed on particular lands,” Miller explained.
The idea is “to streamline as much as we could and create opportunities for development to come in,” she said, while still protecting the interests of residents through regulations set within the IASP.
