Chestermere city council has taken the first step to approving the long awaited Waterford Stage 1 development.
At its regular meeting Monday council gave first reading to amend the land use bylaw to allow redevelopment of 77 heactares on the city’s west side, adjacent to Calgary in between Rainbow Road and Township Road 284. When complete, the development would add some 5,000 new residents.
In addition to a variety of residential housing, the plan seeks to add 48,800 square feet of commercial space and another 12,000 square feet of office space.
Waterford has been in the works since February, 2014. The area structure plan was approved in October of last year and this is the first formal approval for the land, which is presently designated an “urban transition district” that functions as an interface between Chestermere and the City of Calgary.
Waterford is just the latest of a series of new subdivision rezonings that have the potential to triple the city’s population to more than 65,000-80,000 residents when complete. In May council green-lighted the Chelsea development plan and gave first reading to the bigger BridgePort plan.
There is no time limit for final readings of the Waterford amendment, but the Municipal Government Act states that a developer has a maximum of two years to apply for a third reading once the first reading is obtained.
However, city officials have said they hope to have the BridgePort plans in place before fall. Already, the rapid pace of development is shaping up to be a major issue in October’s election campaign by those who feel Chestermere is moving too fast and that the rezonings will add to the city’s financial burden, inevitiably leading to higher taxes.
Although the city reclaims a portion of the costs of installing services such as sewer and water lines, there is a lag time between construction when it begins collecting property taxes, depending on when the units are built, sold and occupied.
In an interview with The Anchor, mayoralty candidate Jeff Hodgson said he wants to put a hold on new development applications until the inventory of existing lots is used up. He complained some existing neighbourhoods are only half built out and that it will take years for the new subdivisions to be complete.
“I’m not against development,” he said. But we have to be smarter about it.”
