The Gold Bar Wastewater Treatment Plant is looking for the green light to expand south and build a new surface parking lot in Gold Bar Park.
Annually, the plant treats more than 100 billion litres of waste water — serving all of Edmonton.
“We’ve been at this site for over 60 years and we’ve reached a point now where we need to expand and move all of our non-essential parking off the site,” explained the plant’s director, Simon Thomas.
He said staff currently park on site, but with more vehicles and more staff, things are getting congested.
He said it’s a matter of safety but EPCOR is also looking ahead to the future and trying to accommodate growth.
“Currently we have over 150 staff, plus contractors on the site. There really is no available parking anymore. We also need to use some of that parking to do future plant expansions.”
But because of the plant’s location in the heart of the river valley, at the bottom of 50 Street, any expansion means encroaching onto green space in Gold Bar Park.
EPCOR is proposing a 170-vehicle surface parking lot for the area just south of its current fence-line. The lot would be built on an area that is primarily grass, with some forest. A city maintenance yard would also be paved over. Thomas said the space was chosen because the company believes it would have the least environmental impact.
EPCOR is also looking to build an elevated employee walkway to connect the parking lot, which is three storeys higher than the plant, with its new operations centre.
Some park users are specifically questioning the need for another parking lot in the area. Two already exist; one on either end of the wastewater treatment plant.
“I can understand that the infrastructure needs to expand in Edmonton for the population we have expanding,” skier Tristan Spilsted said.
“But knocking out trees probably isn’t the best idea. This parking lot isn’t utilized to its full capacity, if they want to take out spots to the north of it.”
On Monday, Gold Bar Park’s pre-existing lot, for park users, was only 20 per cent full, with dozens of empty stalls.
But Thomas said that’s still not enough.
“Even if you look at the available space that’s in Gold Bar Park, it would not accommodate all of the vehicle traffic.”
The idea of construction in the river valley isn’t appealing to park user, Andrea Vogel.
“Everything is under construction all the time in Edmonton. We don’t need it in Gold Bar Park, in my opinion.”
Councillor for Ward 8, Ben Henderson, said he’s heard concerns about increasing vehicle traffic on 50 Street but he says that shouldn’t change.
“This is about accommodating cars that are already coming up and down, just at a different part of the site. It’s not about actually increasing any demand,” he said.
The current plan would not impact cross-county ski trails in the area, however a shared-use path would have to detour during construction.
“I think it’s a good idea, as long as we can continue to work with the cross-country skiers and the wastewater plant not conflicting,” skier Brent Pagg said.
In order for the proposal to go ahead, EPCOR needs to swap land with the city. In exchange for the space to expand, EPCOR would give up land it currently owns closer to the middle of Gold Bar Park.
“I’m not ecstatic about the idea of a parking lot going there but it will be below the road and it will make a difference to the entry of Gold Bar Park but it won’t make a difference to Gold Bar Park itself,” Henderson said.
Back in 2010, EPCOR applied to rezone this same chunk of land but it was rejected by city council because the entire parcel was designated for plant expansion. In this newest proposal, only half will be available for buildings, while the other half will be strictly for a parking lot.
“We do plan, probably even within the next 10 years, to build some more facilities within that new space that we would gather. The current plan is showing a maintenance and storage facility,” Thomas said.
If approved, construction is slated to start in September 2018 and take two years to complete.
An open house with more information and an opportunity to provide feedback is scheduled for Wednesday from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Capilano Community League Hall (10810 54 Street).
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