Chestermere, AB – At today’s regular meeting of Council, City Council decided to sell the Webster Industrial Park lands rather than proceed with developing them at taxpayers’ expense.
This comes after a thorough eight-month review of the project and coincides with the completion of the subdivision plan and detailed engineering work.
“One of the priorities in the new Strategic Plan was a review of the Webster project,” says Mayor Marshall Chalmers. “We’re confident in the recommendations provided by Administration and other industry experts.”
Following the review by Administration, it was determined that the costs to develop would result in the need to borrow more funds than originally planned. This could potentially put the City in a position of exceeding its borrowing capacity and further, place restrictions on borrowing for future projects.
The City plans to sell the parcel to a private developer, based on current market conditions.
“While this project may not be feasible for the City at this time, we believe it is a great project for a private developer,” says Chalmers. “A significant amount of work has been done that would make the lands an attractive investment for the private sector.”
The Letters of Intent (LOI) for the ten parcels of land that were entered into by the City have all been mutually released at no cost to the City.
“Our community is still open for business and we will continue working to increase the non-residential tax base,” says Chalmers.
The City is looking to pursue other means of increasing the non-residential tax rate including working with private developers to prioritize commercial and light industrial areas, exploring business attraction and retention programs and investigating innovative opportunities for business development.
Webster Light Industrial Park is located at the corner of Township Road 240 and Range Road 282.
