A proposed six quarter-section industrial park plan between Redcliff and the local Methanex plant, shown in this supplied map, has social media actively questioning implications for the Medicine Hat Speedway and drag strip.--SUPPLIED IMAGE
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A proposed industrial park in the city’s northwest is meant to give potential investors a clear view of what Medicine Hat has to offer, but the groups currently using the land are calling for a long-term outlook for their facilities.
The “Northwest Industrial Park” would comprise six city-owned quarter-sections between Box Springs Road and Broadway Avenue (Redcliff town limits). Two quarters would be built out in the short term for heavy industrial use if approved by the planning commission and city council.
That plan is open for public consultation now, via the city’s website, but officials with the speedway and drag strip say their members are reacting strongly and rumours of the clubs’ demise are rife on social media.
“This is a long-term proposal – there’s a lot of land between us and (the first phase),” Dave Roth, president of the Medicine Hat Drag strip. “But there are implications for our operations, and we’re kind of up in the air until we get more information.”
Roth said the clubs were located at their current sites – in the northwest quadrant of the land – in the 1990s because the relatively remote locale was well-suited and not needed for the foreseeable future.
He would like to hear proposals for new facilities which he says are a tourism an economic driver.
“You can’t move these things or change course on a dime,” he said, stating future industrial growth is wanted, but new land classification may hem in the motor-sports complex.
That makes it harder to justify improvements, lure sponsors or sign long-term agreements to grow the sport in the meantime.
Both are located on city-owned land described as a future phase of the park.
Those facilities are owned by the groups and the land is leased from the city on long-term agreements, a common practice in Medicine Hat, and one also employed by the nearby Medicine Hat Trap Shooting Club and remote-control flying club.
The park plan
The six quarters, annexed in the late 1980s, are mostly hay land right now, but also home to the city’s northern power plant facility, Hut 8 data processing, several new power substations sit across Box Springs Road from spur rail lines that service Methanex and CF Industries plants.
The 960-acre site is also located on major power, gas and telecommunication lines.
Initial work on the park began in 2018 after the Aurora Cannabis deal was struck located on private property, and some councillors pushed for having ready-to-sell industrial land for other potential investments.
A cost-analysis of servicing the land was done, and eventually included a spur rail line considered key to attracting large industrial operations.
In the 2019 business plan for city’s land and properties department, an estimate of $14 million was given for initial development over 80 acres.
The new area structure plan shows a potential racetrack-style rail loop servicing two quarters, and a new plan for the intersection of Boundary Road and Box Springs, which is currently an awkward curve.
While some council members pushed for the plan last year, others questioned the potential carrying costs of developing land without a contracted buyer. At the same time, municipal land development, now handled by the Invest MH office, moved away from new residential developments toward sale of existing municipal land for redevelopment and the industrial park.
New Mayor Linnsie Clark made full costing of developments a keystone of her campaign platform, stating development costs can outweigh benefits to the tax base, and in this case the developer is the City of Medicine Hat.
Copies of the draft plan can be viewed at the city’s website (shapeyourcity.medicinehat.ca), and feedback will be gathered there until Nov. 24.
