Big plans for city land

By Collin Gallant on December 19, 2018.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com @CollinGallant

The city’s land department will plow ahead with a four-year program to build a heavy industrial park in the city’s northwest and make more commercial property available in the city, according to a budget presentation on Monday.

The News was first to report last spring that the city was studying costs of making land in the far northwest available for sale to industrial customers.

The land itself, several sections north of Broadway Avenue and west of Box Springs Road, was annexed by the city in the late 1980s. But without in-place utility services, there’s always been a question of how fast it could be put on the market, and what sort of costs would be involved.

Among the major capital projects considered in the 2019-2022 department budget is $14 million next year to begin work on the park.

At the same time, the city’s electrical distribution department will build a new substation in the area that will service the coming Aurora Cannabis greenhouse and other existing customers, but the proposed park as well.

While planning and some physical work could proceed in 2019, the park wouldn’t be on the market for some time.

That fact and a forecast of continued sluggish residential lot sales likely won’t produce a profit dividend for the four-year period, but will have net earnings.

Larger non-residential sales are expected in later years.

“Looking beyond and adding up the spikes we’re predicting $22 million (in dividends) over the next 10 years,” said MacKay, stating that matches figures from the previous 10 years.

“The citizens can still expect to extract good value of the land department operations.”

There will be a total of $29.9 million in new projects for the land department that are budgeted but still require final approval from council. They also include work on residential area of Ranchlands 3C, and commercial land at the city-owned airport and in Crescent Heights.

Looking beyond 2022, MacKay said Riverwalk community in lower Ranchlands would be a residential priority, while the commercial work on Brier Run and the northwest industrial park would continue.

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