By Andrew de Souza

Looking to the west for industrial land

Jul 2, 2011 | 7:59 AM

There is plenty of land in the southwest of Prince Albert and the city is looking to see if there is any areas good for industrial land.

On June 27, council approved to hire a group of engineers to take another look at the city’s West Hill Master Plan.

Their objective will be to find out if any areas within the West Hill would be good candidates for servicing and hosting industrial land in an area that has been traditionally earmarked for residential development.

The idea came after a council retreat where the need for industrial land was discussed. The West Hill came up as a candidate after the South-East annexation created debate among residents.

According to the report (available here), the south west section of the city is a potential candidate for industrial development.

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On the plus side says the report, it has lots of land and won’t affect residential properties. On the other hand it has little access to major roads, and is currently empty land with no services —meaning a high dollar figure would be needed.

The study alone costs about $45,000 and entails a detailed look at how the city would be able to service any industrial land and where they would be placed.

But while council approved the project, it created a lot of debate.

Coun. Ted Zurakowski said he didn’t like the idea of surrounding the city with industrial land.

“That may not be the most prudent way to plan for the growth of a city,” he said.
“I’m very reluctant to move on this when that’s probably not in fact where we’d like to be with our industrial growth.”

Coun. Lee Atkinson said the West Hill area would be acceptable but the best choice was across the river since there weren’t many homes there and there was already industrial development and the pulp mill.

“I think some sort of long term strategy needs to be in place to eventually service the other side of the river, develop the river bank and have more industrial on that side of the river rather than wedging all the residential properties,” he said.

City director of economic development Joan Corneil said she understood councillors’ concerns, but that they were premature.

“Bare that in mind that just because they’re looking at it doesn’t mean they’re going to say it’s good to place industrial land,” she said. “We’re just investigating the possibilities that we have within our city limits right now.”

Mayor Jim Scarrow agreed with Corneil and said that it was appropriate to have all the information when making such an important decision.

“I think it’s prudent to look at the whole West Hill Master Plan, to take a look at the potential for industrial development, which could include any myriad of services or big box stores,” he said.

In the end council voted in favour of allowing for an engineering team to conduct the research. As well, they voted in favour of allowing the city to investigate the possibility of having more industrial development around the airport.

adesouza@panow.com