The open house sessions held by the Town and the results of the online survey provided great feedback on the proposed sites for the affordable housing project and also resulted in many suggestions for alternative sites--ones that wouldn't involve the project either being in a commercial area behind a bar, or losing the BMX track.
Unfortunately, the Town owns little land, and other than one suggestion for using the picnic area of the Kinsmen Funland Park (which IS town-owned), all other sites suggested are held privately, and most are not ready for development in the near future.
Locations on the West Hill were suggested with good reasons offered (close to employment, NAIT, the hospital, etc.), but that is all privately owned land.
The old hospital and old Forestry sites were mentioned quite often. These are also privately owned, and if you've walked by the old hospital site recently, you'll realize that it will not be ready for housing or any kind of development for quite some time.
The land beside the Belle Petroleum Centre as well as the former propane sales site across the street and the land in front of the Town shop were all mentioned as possibilities. It would be wonderful to see these empty lots with something on them, but they are "brownfields," which means they are contaminated and require considerable rehabilitation before development is possible. The owners of these lots would need to undertake that rehabilitation, which is the process that we've seen recently during the construction of the new roundabout (the lot across from Boston Pizza was once a gas station), and also at the site of Danberger's store beside the Town office.
But it's great to see the interest in these empty lots--I share that interest and am hopeful that over the coming years there will be programs to help companies and municipalities get this type of land back into use.
No comments:
Post a Comment