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City MattersYour City ~ Your News

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August 2014

1914-2014

1914-2014100

YEARS

100YEARS

Hint:It is part of the City’s parade route!

The answer is on the next page.

Do you know what street this is?

As Grande Prairie celebrates 100 years since incorporation as a village we are revisiting some of the places, people and things no longer found in our City!

Photo credit: South Peace Regional Archives

City Matters Your City~ Your News

When did the Railroad Reach Grande Prairie?

Despite Grande Prairie becoming a recognized village by the federal government in 1914, the railway didn’t make it here until 1916. Before that, people made the trip on foot, horseback or by wagon. As you can tell by the photo, it was a big day and a good sized crowd came to welcome the first train that rolled into our little community!

2014

1924Answer from cover:

It’s 100 Ave. looking towards where 214 Place would be today! The view has changed a little bit hasn’t it? We used a current photo and the one on the front to put it into perspective.

City Matters Your City ~ Your News

1924

Message From Mayor Bill Given

Later this fall the City will formally present its case for annexation to the Municipal Government Board, the provincial body that hears and decides on these matters. Annexation is the process of one municipality, usually a city or town, applying to have additional land area added to its corporate boundaries, or “city limits”. As you can probably imagine, these lands can only come from the surrounding rural municipality, in our case, the County of Grande Prairie.

Our current annexation process started in 2008 with the City of Grande Prairie’s growth study. In June 2010, the City and County jointly adopted the Intermunicipal Development Plan that laid out the specific areas that the City would annex. The City’s official application was filed in July 2013.

To be clear, annexation doesn’t mean the City is taking ownership of the lands, just that jurisdictional control is transferred from the County to the City. The land owners still own the land – the only thing that changes is which local government collects the

taxes, provides the services and makes the rules.

This annexation is VERY important to the future success of our City because it provides room for our community to compete for its fair share of the industrial and commercial development in the region.

The City of Grande Prairie, like all municipalities, pays for the services and facilities it provides through the revenue generated by the property taxes it collects. The best source of property taxes are industrial and commercial developments and typically those properties require a large land area.

Today, the City has a relatively limited land base, without the kinds of properties that industry is seeking.

Here are two thoughts that might help give you a sense of the disproportionate opportunity the County has over the City because if its land area:

1. The “planning area” for the hamlet of Clairmont is about the same size as the current City limits.

2. The total area of the County is larger than the Province of Prince Edward Island.

This lack of “the right land in the right spot” doesn’t allow us to compete with the County of Grande Prairie on any kind of level playing field for that lucrative industrial development.

As a city taxpayer, this matters to you. If the City can’t attract a reasonable amount of industrial development inside city limits, the burden of paying for the services and facilities you expect will continue to drive up your residential property taxes.

The bottom line is that the annexation is 100% about trying to give the City an ability to compete for a reasonable share of the future industrial and commercial development that will happen in our region.

City Matters Your City ~ Your News

Message from the Mayor con’t.Through the process, I’ve noticed some misconceptions, rumours and inaccuracies about annexation floating around. I’d like to clear up some of the most common ones:

• that the size of the annexation area would provide a growth area for the City between 80-120 years (whereas the area was jointly agreed as a 30 year supply of land in the IDP and the City’s methodology and projection forecasts are unchanged  since adoption of the IDP);

• that the annexation is a tax grab by the City. However as stated in the IDP, both municipalities agreed to the lands that constitute the annexation area and more specifically not to include lands constituting an important component of the County tax base, including the Hamlet of Clairmont.

• that annexation will increase taxes to City residents: City budgeting in areas such as snow removal has already envisioned additional resources that would be required to service the annexation area while not impacting the service levels provided to current City residents.

• that annexation will impact the lifestyle of County residents. This is not correct. Any activity that is currently legal within the County will

continue to be possible within annexed lands until such time as urbanization occurs which would prevent some rural lifestyle activities in an urban setting.

• that County residents who have lands around Trumpeter Swan habitat will have their lands frozen by the City for future development opportunities. In fact, the City has only identified that there are provincial government guidelines regarding setbacks for development and activities near Trumpeter Swan breeding water bodies.

At the City we’ve always believed that it’s important to be transparent and that everyone is working from factual, accurate information. If you’d like more details on annexation please visit: cityofgp.com/annexation

If annexation sounds time consuming, expensive, and more than a little bit confrontational that’s because it is. Unfortunately, under our current reality it’s one of the few tools available to us.

City Council believes the best solution for the long term prosperity of our area would be something that recognizes residents and businesses of our region really function as one “community”. The artificial lines drawn between the City and County only get in the way of that community operating as smoothly and

effectively as it should.

To explore this idea, we are hosting the Sept. 5 Alberta Municipal Governance Symposium.

This one-day event will bring together speakers from across the country to explore other models of governance. The idea is to have an open discussion of what has been tried, what has succeeded and what has failed across Canada. If there have been failures we will look to see what we can learn and what could be improved or adapted to our circumstances.

For more information on the Symposium visit www.AlbertaMGS.ca

City Matters Your City ~ Your News

Leisure Centre Renovation Gets Go-AheadThe Leisure Centre is getting a new lease on life.In June, City Council decided to proceed with a $9.5 million renovation on the venue, a project that is expected to take two years to complete.

When it re-opens, the complex, closed in December 2011, will be used as a program facility for eight hours per day.

The newly renovated Leisure Centre will focus primarily on programs and sport development such as: swim club activity, seniors’ swimming and school lessons.

“This will allow us to analyze programming and user requirements at both the Eastlink Centre and The Leisure Centre to ensure the two facilities complement each other,” says Charlene Kushner, Aquatics and Wellness General Manager.

“We expect design work will occur this summer and the project to go to tender in January. Based on a previous structural assessment a large component of the renovation is structural, mechanical and basement upgrades.”

Only the soccer pitch remains open at The Leisure Centre.

Re-opening of the facility was recommended by

Administration after results of a citizen survey indicated significant support for the revitalization project.

Council decided not to re-open the Bear Creek Pool at a $1.5 million cost – a new tank would be required because of frost heaving. Administration has not examined the possibilities.

Guided By Survey Outcome

The recommendations to renovate and re-open the facilities were based on results from an interactive survey conducted between mid-April and May 31.

It attracted 1,800 participants. Respondents had the opportunity to see what impact various options would have on their tax bill.

“We appreciate the input of people who participated in the survey,” says Kushner.

“This was the first survey that examined the future of all of our facilities and the feedback was helpful in developing for Administration to develop recommendations.”

City Matters Your City ~ Your News

25 Parks Named for Community Builders

Bickell’s Pond

Perky McCullough Park

A July 2 ceremony to officially renamed 25 parks/green spaces to honor local families and individuals who have made significant contributions to the area.

The event was part of the 100 Park 100 Names legacy project and the City’s 100 Anniversary celebrations that kicked-off in January. Citizens had until April 15 to submit historically relevant names for consideration by the 100 Anniversary Committee.

The resulting list pays homage to a wide variety of Peace Country residents including; early settlers and entrepreneurs, humanitarians, former council members, advocators for minor league sports and education, war heroes, a home-grown Olympian, and a country music star.

“We found that many of the people and families put forward met more than one of the criteria, like the Menzies family who have five generations with a very lengthy list of involvement in the community,” says Lindsey Juniper, Parks Planner. “It was awe-inspiring.”

Mission Heights Park #7 was the first to receive a new name back in March when it was christened John McAuley Park, after one of the first merchants to set-up shop in Grande Prairie in the early 1900s.

The remaining 74 parks/green spaces will be inaugurated this fall.

Longmate Park

Dalen Park

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Parks ListName Location Neighbourhood In Honour of

Adair Family Park 93A St. and 72 Ave. South Patterson William Allen, Nellie, Robert Hudson and Germaine Adair

Bessent Park 93A St. and 73 Ave. South Patterson Bill Bessent Sr., Bob Bessent

Bickell’s Pond 90 St. and 58 Ave. Countryside South John BickellBloomfield Park 89 St. and 102 Ave. Ivy Lake Gordon BloomfieldBowes Family Park 102 St. and 90 Ave. Swanavon William H. BowesCrerar Park 93A St. and 70A Ave. South Patterson Angie CrerarCroken Park 94A St. and 77 Ave. North Patterson Patrick and Gregory

CrokenDalen Park 98 St. and 77 Ave. North Patterson Knut DalenGrotkowski Park 98 St. and 91A Ave. Highland Park Elvera GrotkowskiHenderson Park 99 St. and 83Ave. North Patterson The Henderson FamilyJ.B. Oliver Park 115 St. and 75A Ave. Westpointe J.B. OliverLogan Park 92B St. and 110 Ave. Mountview Elmer LoganLongmate Park 96 St. and 69 Ave. South Patterson Charles LongmateMates Family Park 102A St. and 83 Ave. Mission Heights Brad MatesMatheson Park 99A St. and 79 Ave. North Patterson Liliane MathesonMenzies Family Park 100 St. and 68 Ave. Country Club West Five generations of

Menzies familyMonkman Park 110 St. and 66 Ave. O’Brien Lake Alexander, Henry and

Jo MonkmanPearcy Park 93 St. and 69 Ave. South Patterson Gordon and Irene

PearcyPerky McCullough Park 97 St. and 113 Ave. Mountview Perky McCulloughPeterson Park 95 St. and 104 Ave. Mountview Roy PetersonRepka Park 99 St. and 105 Ave. VLA George RepkaCarter Rycroft Park 97 St. and 114 Ave. Mountview Carter RycroftSargent Community Park 106 St. and 76. Ave. Mission Heights Ken, Teresa and Sean

SargentSchneider Park 89 St. and 115 Ave. Crystal Heights Harry SchneiderVeterans Park 100 St. and 90 Ave. Swanavon All Local Military

VeteransLongmate Park

Dalen Park

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