EDMONTON – Leduc County, worried about losing millions in future tax revenue, wants Edmonton to abandon its “confrontational” annexation bid and return to negotiations.
Mayor John Whaley said Thursday the county was “surprised” at the size of Edmonton’s bid — 15,600 hectares from the city’s southern boundary to the international airport west of Highway 2. “We don’t think they need that much land.”
In a strongly worded letter to Edmonton’s Mayor Stephen Mandel, Whaley called on the city to drop its “heavy handed and arbitrary proposal” which is creating uncertainty for area businesses.
Mandel said the city must move forward with its application in a bid to grow. The county “has been well aware of those plans” after many months of talks, he said.
“But that does not preclude the two sides from coming up with a collaborative solution” to avoid ending up in front of the municipal board for a final decision, Mandel said.
“John is a great guy, but they full well knew where were going, so I am surprised that they are surprised.”
Mandel also noted Edmonton is looking to annex raw land that produces little revenue for the county. The city has the capacity to provide services to develop it for the region, while the county may not, he said.
Edmonton is not requesting to annex any part of the established Nisku Industrial Park that provides the county with tax revenues today, he added.
But Whaley said he’s worried about the county’s future revenues. There are 200 hectares of undeveloped north of the Nisku industrial park and east of Highway 2, included in the annexation bid, that the county wants to keep. Those lands, when developed, would provide lots of revenue, “the county’s future sustainability fund,” he said.
When questioned, Whaley acknowledged that there has been talk for several years that Edmonton would pursue an annexation bid.
“But the size of it was a surprise,” Whaley said.
He said he wants to avoid an ”adversarial battle” over growth in the region.
The county does not object to Edmonton taking over the international airport as it does not generate a lot of tax revenue and county has to provide services, he said. It’s the agriculture land around it that is the concern. Mandel noted extending city boundaries to the airport is the only way to get new infrastructure like LRT and interchanges built to serve the airport. You can’t take the boundary half way and then leapfrog over to the airport, he said.
Also, Edmonton needs more industrial land to diversify its tax base, Mandel said. Most of the land around the airport is zoned industrial the airport overlay zoning and “Edmonton has the capacity to develop those land.”
“There is the reality of what needs to be done to build region and the reality that we need more industrial to meet our obligations to city residents,” Mandel said.