INNISFAIL – Town council has met with disgruntled business owners from West Gate Industrial Park and for the first time in months both sides are hopeful a cooperative and peaceful agreement can be reached.
Since last year the 21-member West Gate Industrial Park Association has been sounding multiple alarms over an epidemic property crime wave that has cost them more than $500,000 in damages and stolen property, and a new Landscaping Bylaw, which many believe is unnecessary and will siphon off an additional tens of thousands of dollars without any benefit to business owners.
In February the town agreed to meet association members to sort out the issues, and staff, along with members of council, sat down with them on March 1 at the Innisfail Library/Learning Centre to work out their differences.
"I am very optimistic. We had some very good conversations and exchanged dialogue. I think we are moving in the right direction,” said Marc Seabrook, president of the association, which is spending thousands of dollars every month on private security for the park.
While members of town council were lukewarm to an association proposal for the town to throw in extra money to help with security costs, there was agreement business owners should not be forced to spend exorbitant sums of money to beautify their properties inside the industrial park, as suggested through a policy under the contentious bylaw.
The new bylaw provisions include giving industrial park property owners the option of completing onsite landscaping, or the Municipal Planning Commission preferred option of voluntarily paying cash in lieu of completing landscaping requirements. But association members have vehemently opposed it, noting it does not make sense to spend thousands of dollars to beautify an area zoned for industrial lands.
Instead, both sides agreed that working together to spruce up the south side of 42nd Street and the west entrance of town at the Highway 54 intersection was a mutually acceptable goal that could create improved sightlines for that area of town, a key priority for town council.
"It seems we were all on the same page. I think moving forward we can work together and I really think this is going to help our town,” said Seabrook, adding the association and the town will meet on March 15 to work on an amended bylaw. "What we are trying to do is to get them to not scare business out of town. We will work with them so that it will make sense to everybody.”
Coun. Glenn Carritt, who is also a park business owner, said it was a "very good” first meeting between association members and the town, adding a solution to the issues is now within reach.
"The trouble is that there was not a bylaw in place when the industrial park started, so to do it halfway and change the rules is very difficult,” said Carritt of the new Landscaping Bylaw. "I think for a new industrial park we can maybe look at a different landscaping bylaw at that point, but for this one I think we need to call a spade a spade and beautify what we can and not hodgepodge the rest of the industrial area.”
Mayor Jim Romane told business owners at the March 1 meeting he agreed it would be a waste of money for business owners to pour thousands of dollars into beautifying individual park properties. He fully supported a cooperative partnership to focus on improving the visual aesthetics of 42nd Street and the Highway 54 intersection.
"It’s not the great wall of Mexico or anything. Just add some nice shrubbery, decorations and maybe some signage and locations maps showing where the businesses are. I think we are on the right track,” said the mayor, adding it is now entirely possible the bylaw will undergo major changes. "(We can) totally wash the bylaw and start from scratch and have a new law or amend it. That is probably sensible.”
Marc Seabrook, president of the West Gate Industrial Park Association
"I am very optimistic. We had some very good conversations and exchanged dialogue. I think we are moving in the right direction."
