By Andrew de Souza

More information given on south east annexation

May 6, 2011 | 6:26 AM

The area south of Marquis Road is the least expensive option for the city to expand its inventory of industrial land, says city administration.

That was the essential message delivered to a group of Carlton Park residents Thursday during the city’s second information session for the annexation of land south of Marquis Road.

Since the last information session, staff had compared the cost of developing other areas in the city compared to the proposed site, said City Manager Robert Cotterill.

The staff looked at virtually every other available parcel of land in the city and found that the cost to service the different locations would cost $4 million to $15 million because of the need for storm ponds, lift stations and other infrastructure.

By comparison, he said, the land in question would essentially cost nothing, as it could simple be tied in to existing infrastructure.

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Cotterill said the crowd that the city had 79 available acres for industrial of which only about 11 were serviced. With the recent announcement of the pulp mill he said the city needed to have land on hand or else it would miss opportunities.

“You may not agree that we have a problem but we have only a few acres and fewer still that are serviced and that (is) my dilemma,” he said.

In addition to monetary break down, city planner Yves Richard talked to the crowd about what types of businesses could be expected and what types of measures the city could take to prevent noise and unsightliness.

Those in attendance were given a form where they could check off uses they didn’t want to see and Richard said the city would take that into consideration and possibly create a new zoning bylaw that would limit use.

While the city provided much information, many still brought forward concerns about the development, including increased traffic, unsightliness, decreasing property values and the logic of developing the land at all.

Long-time Carlton Park resident Steve Lawrence said the entire neighbourhood had been built with a different plan in mind and the city’s plan would have a negative impact on the neighbourhood.

“You take a long-standing community and you put an industrial area beside it, that’s not what we bought our properties for,” he said.

The information gathered from the meeting will be forwarded to city council, who will then be able to make a decision on the annexation plans.

According to Cotterill there are still many steps and years before anything would be built and that the public would be able to give input at many of the steps along the way.

adesouza@panow.com