New city rising in Strathcona County

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Susan Ruttan, The Edmonton Journal
Published: Thursday, March 29, 2007
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EDMONTON - A new city with highrise apartments and pedestrian-friendly streets is going to be built in Strathcona County.

' A0 O4 o* P+ a1 dThe city will be built from scratch on farmland west of Highway 21 and north of the Yellowhead Highway. It could eventually grow to 200,000 people, said Cynthia Cvik, the county's long-range planning co-ordinator.

) I( T0 P# b: ?8 t* R# o9 o3 MThe county's existing city, Sherwood Park, is expected to reach its growth limits in less than a decade.

7 ?+ W( ?; x& Y. j  E/ |: _Rather than expand its boundaries, the plan is to create a new city -- or "urban node," as the county's revised Municipal Development Plan calls it.
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The location, on prime agricultural land, has upset some people. "I'm just sick about it," said Lois Gordon, who lives in the designated area on land next to her brother's farm. "I don't know what we can do."

The idea of covering up some of the region's best topsoil with high-density housing is appalling, Gordon said.

% \( x9 `3 t6 v5 N" y! D& SCounty staff recommended against the north-of-the-Yellowhead location because of its valuable soil. They proposed instead an area south of Sherwood Park called Colchester.
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Council chose the farmland site in a March 6 vote.

* o+ O- L" T; H' c% @Mayor Cathy Olesen said putting an urban zone in the Colchester land might have created a lot of traffic through the acreages that lie between Colchester and Sherwood Park.

Developing the farmland will be less costly than the Colchester area, Olesen said.

9 P  A) q- S/ w" Y8 S6 x6 m# R$ _"We still have a huge tract of agricultural land" in the county, she said.

4 g/ n# y3 p" \3 FCoun. Alan Dunn favoured using the Colchester area and saving farmland.
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Coun. Brent Jewell took the other side. He said the northern site will be near the new county hospital and stores in Sherwood Park.
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"It was a tough decision," Jewell said. "Both areas had positives and negatives to them."

7 C9 S% \/ w2 wJim Visser, an advocate of preserving topsoil, said prime farmland in Alberta has no government protection, unlike in provinces such as British Columbia.

. u5 m+ o2 x2 v"It's always been difficult to raise a voice for the soil," Visser said.

7 [' l, q5 f- P4 @8 w1 d& Q"The farmers like to sell the land and it's easy for developers to build on big open expanses. And whenever they buy open expanses, they're buying farms."

7 I' g/ C' e8 G0 Y* ZCvik said as soon as the development plan gets final approval, her department will start planning the new city.
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% N# K1 Q8 Q; uThat final approval could come as early as May. The City of Edmonton has objected to parts of the plan, so the two municipalities are in mediation.

Cvik said the new city won't look anything like Sherwood Park.

' A0 D/ _! v3 t) w" M* R3 S8 ]' `  Z"It will be a small city, which makes far more efficient use of the land within its boundaries than what existing Sherwood Park does," she said.

, i7 ~& E0 m2 e# x5 z8 K1 U9 t8 p"That's not a crack at the existing Sherwood Park, but it is saying that it's a form we are not looking to replicate."
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Sherwood Park was built in the 1950s as a car-oriented bedroom community, with no real downtown. The plan is that the new city will be pedestrian and bicycle friendly, have a variety of housing types and have a downtown.

- X$ t2 f4 c. Y0 Z/ |3 fCvik expects to see highrise apartments there, which are unheard of in Sherwood Park.
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$ M4 k! s/ v8 v"Maybe we won't have 40-storey buildings, but maybe we're going to go beyond the six storeys we have in Sherwood Park and go to 14 or 21 storeys in the most dense portion of it."
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It will be years before anything is built in the new city, Cvik said, although the goal will be to start before Sherwood Park reaches its limits -- estimated to happen by 2014.
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: k! {# G( Z. P/ z. xShe said one reason for developing a new urban area is that the pipes that carry sewer and water in Sherwood Park could not handle a major new urban area. They would have to be dug up and expanded, Cvik said.

Instead, a new sewer and water system just for the new city will be built.

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