Red Deer Minute: Issue 267

Red Deer Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Red Deer politics

📅 This Week In Red Deer: 📅

• Red Deer City Council meets tomorrow at 1:00 pm, and among the items on the agenda is an update on the Province's plan to widen Highway 2 through the city. Alberta Transportation wants to expand roughly 11 kilometers of the QEII corridor to six lanes between 32nd Street and Highway 11, with construction targeted between 2026 and 2029, and one section of the realignment would cut into the City's Waskasoo Park system. To complete the alignment, the Province would need to acquire 10.1 hectares, about 25 acres, of Maskepetoon Park and Heritage Ranch, reducing Maskepetoon Park alone by 25.3% and removing an estimated 4.7 hectares of tree canopy there. Administration is asking Council to choose a direction, either advocating to protect the parkland and press for alternative alignments, or, if the project proceeds, negotiating compensation that reflects what would be lost. City Staff note this is not a City project and warn that the Province could expropriate the land outright if the two sides cannot agree. 
  
  
• Also on tomorrow's agenda is the Westerner Exposition Association's annual financial report. The City has held temporary financial oversight of the Association since 2020, after it struggled to repay debts owed to the City, and Council has suspended interest and principal payments on its loan until April 1st, 2027. For the year ending March 31st, the Association reported revenues of $12.6 million, up 2.2%, and narrowed its operating deficiency before grants and donations to $261,000 from $426,000 a year earlier, finishing with a modest surplus of $5,000. Administration cautions that the Association remains heavily reliant on grants and that uncertainty persists over its ability to meet future debt repayments. City Staff are asking Council to direct a further review of the loan agreements and repayment options, with a report back by the first quarter of 2027.
  
  
• Council will also discuss giving first reading to a zoning change that would allow a cannabis retail store at 2120 90 Thorburn Avenue, in the Timberlands North area near St. Joseph's High School. The site is zoned for mixed-use commercial, which does not currently permit cannabis sales, so a site-specific exception is required. Administration supports the application, noting the location sits beyond the 150 meter separation from schools set out in the City's zoning rules, further than the 100 meter distance the Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis Commission requires. All four written submissions from the neighbourhood opposed the proposal, however, with Red Deer Catholic Schools among those objecting that the store is within walking distance of the school and would be accessed by students. If first reading passes, a public hearing is scheduled for the September 1st Council meeting.
  
  
• Another first reading tomorrow would rezone a shuttered gas station site at 4745 and 4749 32nd Street, in the South Hill area, from neighbourhood commercial to residential medium-density. The gas station has been closed for nearly a year and the remaining commercial units shut in February, and the landowner, who also owns the neighbouring townhome development, wants to clear the aging buildings and redevelop the site for housing. Administration supports the change, pointing to the City's priority of adding housing supply in established neighbourhoods, and environmental assessments found no concerns with shifting the land from commercial to residential use. None of the 91 nearby landowners who were notified submitted written comments. A public hearing would follow at the September 1st Council meeting if first reading is granted.
  
  
• Council will also receive an update tomorrow on the City's plan to host the Alberta Mid-sized Cities Mayors' Caucus Summit from September 16th to September 18th, an event expected to draw municipal leaders from 24 mid-sized communities across the province. Administration says the Summit is being run on a cost-recovery basis, with revenues of about $220,000 from sponsorships and registration fees against roughly $150,000 in expenses, and any surplus passed to the Caucus under the host agreement. City Staff add that no additional tax-supported funding is being requested.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

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