By Andrew de Souza

Record development saps land reserves

Nov 24, 2010 | 10:41 AM

City land reserves are just about exhausted after a record-setting year of growth and development.

At a land developer’s forum on Wednesday, city staff said there would be virtually no serviced land left to sell by the end of the year.

Mayor Jim Scarrow said the meeting was held to increase interest in the city’s few remaining lots and also show the need for more private development.

“The meetings primary objective is to make sure that we have an ample supply of (serviceable) lots without taxing the financial resources of the City of Prince Albert and the financial resources of the private developers,” he said.

The lack of land comes from a remarkable year for the city. So far, 2010 has broken records in volume and value of land and development permits sold.

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As of Monday, the city has granted 332 building permits valued at more than $74.8 million, more than 50 per cent higher than this time last year and breaking the record originally set in 1989.

The result however, is a lack of serviced land for sale by the city, especially for industrial development.

Currently, the city has only about 30 units for residential development and less than 10 units for industrial.

City Manager Robert Cotterill told developers there was land in the city that could be serviced, but it would require millions of dollars. Not only would it be expensive, but it would also be a gamble.

“We’re always going to have these waves,” he said.

“We want to increase spending next year but we’re also not a rich city. We don’t have the cash flow to hold land and hope we’ll have some for the next boom.”

Cotterill added that not only was there a high cost but often strong opposition from the community.

One developer in the audience said while he understood the public’s concerns, the city was sometimes sacrificing development in order to salve resident’s fear of change.

“We need to be hustling there otherwise we’re losing out on business,” he said.

City economic developer Joan Corneil said the city would be presenting its budget for further land development in 2011 by the end of the year.

A copy of the presentation given is available here.

adesouza@panow.com