The Town of Crossfield gave first reading to an Area Structure Plan (ASP) that proposes commercial and industrial development on the east side of Highway 2A during its Nov. 1 council meeting.
The 264.2 acres comprising Black Bull Industrial Park’s ASP is the same land Crossfield native Luke Ludwig said he grew up on and considers home.
“I still cherish this town,” Ludwig said. “We started working on a development that we felt we could be proud of (and) would benefit the community.”
Of those acres, the ASP features 259 acres of developable land with 34.3 acres for public utility lots and 14.6 acres of roadways, according to development planner Greg MacKenzie.
He said the 200.2 acres of proposed industrial development – of which 25 acres are light industrial – 48.7 acres are medium and 126.5 acres are heavy and 9.9 acres of proposed commercial would bring a “real diversity” of employment opportunities and services to Crossfield.
“It’s a well-positioned parcel of land,” MacKenzie said.
“It has a lot of potential to create what is essentially a comprehensive industrial and commercial neighbourhood.”
Crossfield Chief Administrative Officer Ken Bosman said Black Bull Industrial Park’s ASP is “tricky” because the area is also part of a larger joint ASP in the works with Rocky View County.
Though Black Bull could continue to create essential engineering reports for sanitary, water, traffic and stormwater, Bosman said it must ultimately be consistent with the engineering reports yet to come back from the joint ASP.
“This is a unique situation,” he said. “If the engineering had come back differently they would have…to rip it up and do it again.”
Though untouched in the ASP presented to council, Bosman said a permanence assessment had been submitted to Alberta Environment concerning the wetland in the northern portion of the development.
To support the needs of the development, MacKenzie said the ASP currently outlined stormwater management ponds.
His hope, however, is that Alberta Environment would allow the creation of an “engineered wetland” that supports the functions of a wetland while also handling the development’s stormwater management needs.
“We don’t know whether we can touch this,” he said.
“We won’t know that until probably the spring of 2017.”
Able to create various water depths, he said the engineered wetland could grow aquatic vegetation and support wildlife natural to the current wetland as well as trees, pathways and benches open for the public to enjoy.
As the wetland is currently an integral part of the community, Deputy Mayor James Ginter said changes could be a tough sell.
“If you want to change that pond at all, it’s got to be a 10 times improvement,” he said. “Otherwise, it will get shot down.”
With all the residential development occurring on the west side of Highway 2A, Mayor Nathan Anderson said he is “very positive” about what Black Bull Industrial Park is trying to do in terms of balancing development.
Though council gave first reading to the ASP, it was on the condition it be resubmitted with plans for the engineered wetland, pending approval from Alberta Environment, as well as clarifying the municipal reserve requirements prior to public circulation.
“All of that has to be utterly transparent for folks so…there are no surprises,” Anderson said.
