EDITOR’S NOTE: This article initially stated the first residents moved into Blatchford “May of last year.” It should have read “May of 2021.” The article has been corrected and Global News regrets the error.
An Edmonton city councillor’s hope to sell a large chunk of undeveloped Blatchford community land is kaput for the time being.
A motion from pihêsiwin councillor Tim Cartmell aimed to shrink the size of the current Blatchford utility footprint to reflect the size of the community so any remaining land would then be put up for sale.
He originally brought the motion in May, but the council didn’t get to it then, so it was postponed to Wednesday. However, again council did not get to it, so the motion died on the floor.
The development at the old City Centre Airport lands aims to use 100 per cent renewable energy and be carbon neutral.
It was billed as a signature Edmonton community that was centrally located and accessible. The original timeline was to grow the area to 30,000 residents by 2038.
However, Cartmell is not giving up.
He wants council to offer the undeveloped land to private sector developers. He says Blatchford can then grow at the same speed as some of the other, newer neighbourhoods in the city.
Cartmell wants to increase the pace of development in the area. He’s not happy with how slowly the project has been moving.
The first 11 families moved into their homes in the north Edmonton neighbourhood in May of 2021, four years after they were originally expected to.
“We’ve invested hundreds of millions in developing that land, in building LRT and expropriating land and moving people out of the former airport operations,” Cartmell said. “I would like to recoup that as quickly as we can.”
But some councillors think it might be best to wait it out.
“I think that there is a way to do this without saying: ‘OK, let’s press the panic button,'” Aaron Paquette said. “Instead, why don’t we put on a lens of responsibility and vision and see what we can do with Blatchford now?”
This is not a new idea.
In May 2022, Cartmell suggested the city consider selling land at lower-than-market rates to incentivize development. He also thought the city should be open to partnerships with private development.
But councillors were told in October 2022 that the private sector has never wanted to be part of the project due to concerns over financial feasibility. All buildings in Blatchford are required to have net-zero emissions, mainly by connecting to the community’s district energy sharing system, which builders say drives up the cost.
In 2022, Kalen Anderson, executive director of Urban Development Institute Edmonton Metro, said private developers could get on board if the business plan became more feasible, which could mean compromising emissions goals or by allowing single-family units into the neighbourhood — something Edmonton’s mayor doesn’t want to do.
Cartmell told Global News the utility committee is scheduled to discuss Blatchford utilities later this month and that, as chair of that committee, he’ll make sure there’s time to debate it.