By Patrick Book

City of Regina looks to annex surrounding land

May 25, 2013 | 11:26 AM

The City of Regina is looking to expand its borders by taking over several pockets of land currently belonging to the RM of Sherwood.

Mayor Michael Fougere revealed the plan at a news conference at City Hall Friday morning. It will see the city annex large tracts of farmland on all sides of Regina's current borders to accommodate expected future growth and ensure that hundreds of millions of dollars of potential economic development comes to fruition.

“We want to secure land for future growth of about 500,000 (people),” Fougere explained to reporters.

“We're growing continually, very fast, and our projections for growth have been exceeded all the time. So we initially talked about 300,000 as one sort of area but now we're looking at 500,000… We're going to meet the opportunities today and we have every indication, what we're hearing from businesses and owners coming to our province, they want to develop. They're looking for certainty and they're looking for information from us and to move forward.”

Despite those lofty goals Fougere explains the impetus for the plan came from a number of land owners inside the RM who have asked the city to annex their properties.

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“They want to receive water, sewer, transit, and fire protection as part of their urban growth,” he insisted, going on to explain that despite the ensuing loss of tax revenue the RM shouldn't have an issue with the city taking them on.

“That doesn't mean that the RM of Sherwood loses anything at all. There are many other developments around the rural/urban fringe that will stay within the RM of Sherwood and they'll benefit from that on tax base alone.”

He notes that the city would compensate the RM based on how much tax revenue they're expected to lose. He also made sure to point out that already-developed areas like the Sherwood Industrial Park will stay in RM hands; only farmland will be part of the deal.

Fougere listed Harvard Developments, Dundee Developments, Forster Developments and the Rosewood Park Alliance church as the land owners who want to be part of Regina. He also insisted there were more beyond those few.

The land in question lies within what's being called the rural/urban fringe, a boundary dictated by the province that marks areas of joint economic concern between the city and the RM, which completely encompasses Regina. That border was set by the provincial government in February. Regina City Council approved a report titled “Optimizing Regional Economic Opportunities” that laid out a plan to work with surrounding RMs and economic interests.

“We've undertaken several reviews to ensure we have long-term sustainable growth…We're talking with the White Butte Association, which is a conglomeration of a number of urban and rural municipalities and towns and villages, as well as the Moose Jaw/Regina corridor, so we have broad based collaboration of economic development across the piece.”

Relations between the RM of Sherwood and Regina have been rocky for years. They hit a new snag last year when the RM dissolved a regional economic planning group that had been in place for decades. Each community has been working on their own official community plans, also focused on plotting future growth, independently of the other (those plans must be approved by the province). The two also tussled over plans to bring a Kal Tire warehouse to an area near the Global Transportation Hub and the RMs plans to redevelop the dormant Sherwood Twin Arenas.

But Fougere says things may be changing now that the two councils, as well as he and the reeve, are in more frequent weekly contact.

“We've been talking for several months now, quite a while, identifying mutual growth needs across the region.

“The relationship is maturing and we're understanding each other better,” he stressed.

He says he's hopeful that a joint resolution laying out terms of the annexation can be settled upon within a few months.

It's unclear if the RM feels the same way, however. After being asked for comment on the city's plan the RM scheduled a media briefing for 3:30pm Friday. Shortly after, however, staff delayed until early next week.

Coincidentally the RM council had a special meeting scheduled for Friday to consider it's official community plan bylaw and an accompanying zoning bylaw but the announcement from the city wasn't discussed. Only one councillor was present. Three others phoned into the meeting and the two bylaws passed first reading unanimously once they reached quorum.

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