CANMORE – Canmore council has approved the transfer of a strip of land as part of the Lawrence Grassi Middle School Area Redevelopment Plan as well as a residency program to help Canmore residents find housing.
The Lawrence Grassi Middle School Area Redevelopment Plan (ARP) includes 20 residential units to be part of the Canmore Community Housing (CCH) program. There is also the plan for 20 units of purpose-built employee housing units for employees of the Canadian Rockies Public Schools (CRPS). The redevelopment plan was passed on March 1.
The Town of Canmore owns a 742.78 square-metre strip of land that bisects the southern portion of the site. Prior to the development of the lands, CRPS must acquire the land from the Town, which is a titled parcel.
Under the current Land Transaction Policy of the Town, municipal land must be disposed through a competitive process open to any person willing to purchase the land. In some cases, council can approve an exception to this requirement by resolution if the transfer provides a clear community benefit.
“This is an exemption to our land transaction policy,” Coun. Tanya Foubert said during a special meeting of council on Tuesday (Sept. 13). “There is a clear community benefit being provided here.”
Town administration and CRPS were also proposing that a new residency program, administered by CCH, be created that could address some of the interest expressed in ensuring a portion of the market housing units are geared towards full-time Canmore residents.
Foubert asked what would happen if an agreement could not be reached between administration and CRPS.
“If we get to the point where it was not possible to reach an agreement, we would come back to council with an update on that,” said Whitney Smithers, general manager of municipal infrastructure.
Council was unanimously in favour of authorizing an exemption to the land transaction policy for the transfer of the parcel of land.
Quite a bit of discussion occurred regarding the residency program, with the motion being to direct administration to report back on the Canmore Community Housing residency program prior to the transfer being executed.
“Taking a look at the potential tools available, for CRPS to implement right across the board systems such as CCH has, it will require a level of administration that is not practical,” Mayor Sean Krausert said. “Some sort of cooperation with CCH would be needed.”
“I would like to strike to provide information and insert for council approval on the CCH residency program prior to it being transferred,” Coun. Wade Graham said.
After a break, council came back with an amending motion that asked for administration to report back on the number of units to be included in the residency program for council approval.
This amending motion was not supported by the majority of council.
Coun. Joanna McCallum felt that administration was qualified to determine the number of units without needing council approval.
“I think administration is fully capable of doing their job,” she said.
Coun. Jeff Hilstad agreed, stating that a lot goes into these types of deals and council was not the best place to make that decision.
Graham and Coun. Jeff Mah were the two councilors in favour of the amending motion.
“We advocated a lot of responsibility lately and I have full faith in administration,” Graham said. “However, this will fully be borne by council, and we will need to accept full responsibility for how that happens and the number of units. As that is true in my mind, I would like input on that decision.”
The amended motion was voted down, and council would pass a new motion directing administration to report back to provide information on the number of units in the residency program prior to the transfer of the land parcel.
