Council has agreed to lease park space to a resident in the Carlton Park area. (Council agenda package/City of P.A.)

By Alison Sandstrom

Parks

Council agrees to lease city green space to resident for expanded backyard

May 6, 2021 | 1:00 PM

Prince Albert city council has reversed an earlier decision and agreed to lease a small piece of city green space to a resident who plans to fence it off as part of their backyard.

At an April committee meeting, council initially denied the request in part out of concern it would lead to a deluge of similar asks. But when the matter returned to the chamber for a final vote on Monday, councillors voted 4-3 to lease the resident half of the land they had asked for.

The new lease agreement will see the Carlton Park family rent a 25 ft by 56 ft section of city green space for $250 annually on a five-year term. Any construction on the parcel—apart from a fence—will be prohibited.

“This is space that the city does not take care of,” Coun. Blake Edwards told the meeting. “It’s a couple of neighbours who take care of this, otherwise for a lot of years this was just under weeds.”

Edwards, who represents the Carlton Park area was the strongest advocate of leasing the land. He argued other P.A. residents stretch their properties all the time and, unlike in this case, they don’t offer to pay for it.

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Meanwhile, Mayor Greg Dionne remained firmly opposed.

“You’re going to set an ugly precedent and we’re going to get all kinds of requests to intrude into our green space,” he said.

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alison.sandstrom@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @alisandstrom