FANCY TOY OR BETTER WAY FORWARD?
Without the right development, city’s LRT initiative will be a failure
Edmonton got the money. Now the real work begins.
Premier Rachel Notley announced $1.04 billion in provincial funding for Edmonton’s LRT extension from downtown to Lewis Farms Thursday. That’s the last funding piece, which allows the project to move to procurement and start construction as early as next year.
But that might be the easy part. This LRT isn’t meant to just move people. It’s meant to change where people live.
If that doesn’t happen, the line fails.
Let me take a step back. Ask yourself why the west LRT is routed straight down Stony Plain Road, one of the tightest corridors in the west end, instead of the wide-open 107 Avenue.
Why is Edmonton building a low-floor train, one that functions more like a slow-moving tram than efficient shuttle?
It’s not to get people from the suburbs to downtown quicker. It’s not to reduce traffic congestion (although it will at least give alternatives as things get worse). It’s for development. Council specifically chose the route and train design to spur high-density development at stations all along the line. If that happens, tens of thousands of new homes and businesses will add ridership and tax dollars to help stabilize the city’s bottom line.
If it doesn’t, council is building a fancy toy.
This is the same rationale that guided route selection for the Valley Line to Mill Woods. There, council is counting on a string of new mini-downtowns at Strathearn, Holyrood, Bonnie Doon and Mill Woods Town Centre.
In the west, they’re hoping for development along 104 Avenue in Oliver, at Jasper Gates, Stony Plain Road, Meadowlark Mall and across 87 Avenue from the Misericordia Hospital.
Several of those nodes now have zoning in place, a few are applying for development permits. Glenora’s West Block, at 142 Street and Stony Plain Road, is under construction.
I’m hopeful, but not convinced council knows what it takes to make this gamble pay off.
Take Strathearn Heights for example. Council passed the rezoning application in 2008. But the plan requires Nearctic Property Group to create a beautiful, park-like public boulevard through the community to the LRT station.
Towers with 1,900 units would empty onto the street — making it critical to the $800-million project’s success. But Nearctic can’t get a bank to finance the public infrastructure required in the zoning.
It asked Edmonton for a $13-million grant to be paid back through the increased property taxes but council has no policy or formula to make sure that kind of deal is fair. The city and developer are still negotiating.
Last year as well, the 1,200unit development of Holyrood Gardens was nearly scuttled for something as simple as utility services. They raced to get council approval and build across the right-of-way before TransEd moved in.
Developers have been calling for a joint task force to make sure city council understands the barriers they face.
Instead, the city hired former St. Albert economic development guru Guy Boston to lead city efforts. That might be enough, said Jeffrey Hansen-Carlson, founder of the Transit- Oriented Development Institute. “It’s a new role but he is hustling.”
On Thursday, Mayor Don Iveson certainly sounded bullish, boasting these projects are now attracting attention from institutional investors in Toronto and other major global markets.
“I’m fully confident this will happen,” he said. “As it does, the new property taxes that those businesses and residents will pay — leveraging the existing roads and pipes, existing parks, fire stations — will overall increase the physical efficiency of the city.”
I agree Edmonton needs new forms of transportation.
When it builds roads, the consequence is car-oriented, lowdensity development. This style of development is no good for the city budget. It never has been. People living in the homes don’t pay enough in taxes to cover the upkeep and services. If they want today’s level of services and maintenance, taxes will rise.
More density is imperative. The LRT is one way to get that.
But retrofitting older neighbourhoods to be LRT-oriented will be tough, and Edmonton needs a lot of new development to break even on a potentially $2.5-billion piece of infrastructure.
Plus, I could write a whole other column on the downsides of this line.
Council is going to sacrifice 90-year-old elms along Stony Plain Road for this. It’s tearing down homes and Western Cycle, an 80-year old anchor tenant on 124 Street. People currently taking the bus are going to have to walk further to the LRT stations.
Train-related congestion will make the road home even longer for Terwillegar-Riverbend residents each day.
But Thursday’s announcement gives a lot to celebrate.
So council, please put your heads down and focus. Let’s make this worthwhile.