Paying for the suburbs, rebranding city expected to be hot topics as council wraps

City council has embraced a massive agenda this week, cramming 39 reports and agenda items into the last week of committee meetings before summer break.

Council has extended orders late into the evening Tuesday and nine people are already registered to speak to a contentious transit strategy going forward Wednesday. Others are expected to sign up right before the meeting.

That’s in addition to discussions on the rising downtown office vacancy rate and talks on how to encourage more affordable housing.

Here are a few of the other items on the table. The reports are posted at edmonton.ca/meetings.

REBRANDING THE CITY

Edmonton won’t have a slogan but city officials believe they’ve found a sentence that sums up what makes this city stand out. The sentence is: “If you have the courage to take an idea to reality, to build, to make something, Edmonton is your city.”

They believe Edmonton is inventive, open, courageous and cooperate.

This is the result of a rebranding effort that started in 2011 with hundreds of interviews about new ways of celebrating what Edmonton residents have accomplished. The online blog and crowdfunding page Make Something Edmonton is part of that.

An update on the initiative and next steps goes to council’s executive committee Tuesday. The hope is to create a shared brand all Edmonton corporations can tie into as they sell themselves to the world. The goal is to position Edmonton as one of the exciting cities to watch in the Northern Hemisphere and to start appearing consistently on national and international rankings in 2020.

PAYING FOR THE SUBURBS

Edmonton’s growth areas — not including annexation land in Leduc County — will cost Edmonton $1.4 billion in capital projects, things like roads, sewer trunk lines, parks and fire halls.

That’s in addition to the $3.8 billion developers will pay. For the city, maintenance and replacement costs for the next 50 years will be another $1.4 billion more than the property taxes new homeowners in those areas are expected to pay.

Last year, council asked city officials to sit with developers and figure out solutions, whether that’s reducing services or increasing the amount new homeowners pay in their house prices. On Tuesday, officials are expected to tell council’s executive committee they need another year to complete the work.

“It’s mightily complex,” said planning branch manager Peter Ohm, saying they were able to bring the group together, but not yet find solutions.

“We’ve kind of got the riverbanks and we know many other cities are asking the same questions,” said Ohm, hoping to bring in experts from the Monk Institute or elsewhere this year. “By ourselves, we will be challenged to take on these questions.”

The costs are for the residential areas of Horse Hill, Decoteau and Riverview.

SKYRATTLER TO SAVE ITS SCHOOL SITE

The neighbourhood of Skyrattler won’t lose its park space after all, according to a report heading to council’s executive committee Tuesday.

The south-central neighbourhood was one of 20 communities with a school site that was never developed. Edmonton Public Schools declared it surplus in 2006 and council moved to rezone it for affordable townhouses.

Residents protested the loss of the space and also proved they don’t need more density. Skyrattler already has 85 per cent multifamily homes and very few parks.

“Green space there is at a premium and we need to protect it,” said Coun. Michael Walters, who helped convince administration to find an alternative site.

Now Taylor College is interested in developing part of its excess land across the street, and if it decides not to go ahead, administration says city-owned land south of 23 Avenue at 119 Street is an acceptable alternative.

NATURALIZING MILL CREEK

City officials have determined it is possible to return Mill Creek to a natural state but at a cost of between $80 million to $130 million.

The creek currently runs into a pipe before it spills over a several-metre drop into the North Saskatchewan River. Letting it run again above ground would recreate rare fish-spawning habitat, plus create a barrier-free series of walking trails in the river valley near the future Muttart LRT station.

But the creek has to cross five to seven roads and other utilities, depending on design, according to a report heading to council’s urban planning committee Wednesday. Construction would also have to deal with contaminated land from the incinerator and brick yard formerly in the area.

Public support for the idea is strong, say city staff. If council supports the idea, they can debate funding $1.8 million to complete the design. Construction could be phased over 30 years because parts of the river valley park system need upgrading. Officials say it’s likely federal and provincial governments would contribute to the project.