Town council has given the official green light for the massive Woodlands residential development to proceed.
At its Oct. 14 regular meeting, council gave second and third readings to the Woodlands Area Structure Plan, Land Use Bylaw and to the Woodland Outline Plan, the latter accepted by resolution. While doing so, council approved 12 amendments from an initial proposal planners brought to the table on Aug. 25. The town then held an open house on Sept. 18 to receive citizens' input.
After receiving public input, planners then came back with the amendments, which were accepted by council.
“It is exciting to see it (development) come to life. We addressed all the concerns,” said Steve Bontje, a partner with Laebon Homes, who attended last week's council meeting. His Central Alberta company will soon begin construction of up to 500 new homes in 2015 in the 12-phase development that will be called The Woodlands.
Laebon's 100-acre parcel of land, which represents about one quarter of the total area in the outline plan area earmarked for future development, consists of rolling pasture with a natural ravine and Buffalo Creek running southeast-northwest in its southern portion. The property is bordered by a CPR rail line to the west, existing residential development to the north, Highway 54 to the south and Woodlands Road to the east.
Laebon's plan for the new subdivision calls for a mix of entry-level styles, estate level homes, as well as row housing. A future commercial area of just under four acres is earmarked in the southeast corner, but if market demand is not present it could be converted for multi-family residential use.
Development of the south Woodlands area has been a vision in Innisfail since the late 1970s when the town annexed it.
Laebon, which has been active in the community with the Madison Park development, has been in discussions with the town about developing the Woodlands area since 2007. While the Woodlands Area Structure Plan calls for the ultimate build-out of 806 new housing units to accommodate just under 2,000 citizens on the entire 396 acres of land, along with a comprehensive commercial area, Laebon is the only developer to make a serious bid to begin building in the Woodlands area.
Craig Teal, the town's director of planning and operational services, said the process to move forward on Laebon's plans was a “longer process than usual”, noting it was important to identify adjacent resident concerns, and to have them come to the open house to find out in more detail about the proposed development.
He said the amendments brought forward to council last week had a “direct bearing” to citizens' input, which included questions and concerns about drainage, access, a trail corridor and how much of the land would be stripped and cleared in preparation for development.
The 800-metre, six-metre wide trail corridor, which was part of the area plan in 2003 but was left off last August, was put back in through one of the amendments.
Teal said the issue of land stripping and clearing would be dealt with through the negotiation of the upcoming development agreement process with Laebon.
“When we enter into a contract with the developer, after the subdivision is approved, and if an area of raw clay is exposed and we get too many dust complaints, we can ask, ‘What is your game plan to alleviate it? Are you going to send a water truck, are you going to lay down a low-quality grass seed cover so it doesn't get blown away by the wind?' Those are some of the things we will look at at that stage,” said Teal.
Now that council has approved Laebon's application, Teal said he expects a subdivision application to be made within the next two or three months, followed by the development agreement process.
Teal said he's hopeful that full construction at the site will begin by late April or early May.
