Council to tackle long-term plans, COVID cash and gas well debt

By COLLIN GALLANT on October 3, 2020.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Long-term development, plans to spend COVID stimulus funds and approving major borrowing for gas well closures headline the agenda of Monday’s Medicine Hat city council meeting.

After several relatively quick meetings in past months, the session that returns to council chambers at city hall after six months, could be much longer.

Councillors will debate the 116-page Municipal Development Plan that is the guiding document for planning policy following a public hearing. It suggests a new approach to meeting density targets and providing city services using a sector-by-sector approach over considering neighbourhoods on their own.

It also proposes a new development strategy for the city centre and downtown with a Riverfront District.

On a similar vein, new capital projects funded from a provincial municipal stimulus program focus on downtown, tourism and recreation facilities.

“We had a little trouble finding projects that wouldn’t add operating expense,” said Mayor Ted Clugston, speaking generally, this week. “But I think we’ve found some that tick all the boxes.”

The full list of projects are detailed in the agenda package released Friday, and includes a $2-million remake of a “Town Square” that includes portions of Riverside Veterans Memorial Park and the city-owned parking lot at 603 First St.

It was at council’s last meeting where Clugston revealed that a sale of the long vacant lot to a local group planning to build a boutique hotel had fallen through.

Council approved in 2017 a general plan to improve the lot, which has long featured cracked concrete and pot-holed gravel patches. At that time a city-led proposal to build two residential-commercial towers on the site was shelved after garnering little private sector interest.

Planned streetscape improvements were themselves paused as new interest was explored.

New plans would see the surface paved to be used as both a parking lot and gathering space.

Other projects include funds for trail development ($1.7 million), a pickleball facility ($2 million), Gas City Campground improvements ($1.3 million) and upgrades to the BMX track facility ($500,000). They would need to be completed by the end of next year under the provincial program that aims to bolster local economic activity.

Council’s official priority list includes a focus on potential campground expansion, and a riverfront recreation plan.

The MDP includes philosophical planning changes to promote a river district between the parking lot and the Medicine Hat Arena.

Planning officials who authored the MDP said that among other things, new thinking about downtown is required considering the challenges faced by brick and mortar businesses.

“The goal should be to turn downtown into an urban living environment,” said planning policy superintendent Robert Sissons during an interview with the News.

Councillors will also vote on second and third readings for a bylaw that would OK up to $80 million in borrowing to pay for a large portion of a gas-well abandonment program.

That funding model was proposed in the spring to fund the estimated $125-million cost of closing in and meeting lingering tax and surface agreement payments.

The city’s treasury includes about $135 million that is set aside for abandonment liabilities, but that is held in long-term investments.

Administrators say that leveraging the city’s ability to borrow against the principal is financially advantageous considering low borrowing rates.