Town council authorized the transfer of about 26,000 square feet of land on the south side of Highway 27 to the Mountain View Credit Union in exchange for land the credit union lost to accommodate a new service road to the south at 65 Avenue.
Council made the decision during its regular Jan. 9 meeting.
The decision was made necessary by Alberta Transportation requesting that a new service road be developed for the area to ease traffic flow. MVCU owned the piece of land that Alberta Transportation requested for the new service road. To compensate the credit union, the town transferred an equal amount of land to the credit union where the old service road to the north formerly was.
Another part of the transfer between the town and credit union seeks to address the fact that the new service road doesn't run in a straight line across the south portion of the three parcels owned by the credit union. Because the road turns slightly to the north and reduces the developable area on three of the lots owned by the credit union, the town suggested transferring a portion of town property to the credit union to compensate the business.
Larry Wright, the town's director of operations, said Alberta Transportation, the credit union and the town worked well together to the benefit of all parties.
"The credit union has worked diligently with us on this for 18 months. I think it's a very positive situation,î Wright told councillors during the meeting.
Following the meeting, Wright said the main beneficiary of the agreement is Alberta Transportation.
"Because of the difficulties with the intersection at 65 and 67(A avenues), that was one of the major reasons for closure and transfer of the land. Alberta Transportation indicated in 2009 and 2010 that (road development) would be development driven. The credit union fulfilled that, (Alberta) Transportation supported us with an agreement for partial funding of a new access point,î he said.
Bob Marshall, chief executive officer of the MV CU, said he is glad that the process is finally over and that full attention can now be given to constructing the new building.
"It's been a long, arduous task to get to this stage. With the (town's) desire to see us move forward with our building and Ö their commitment to helping us relocate that service road Ö it's been super in how they treated us,î he said.
MVCU put up just "well over half a million dollarsî to relocate the service road, with the rest coming from Alberta Transportation.
As for the construction on the new building, Marshall said early last week most of the footings were poured, with the hope of getting that completed in the next three weeks.
Construction has been delayed a bit by having to pump water out of the ground, Marshall said. Crews spent four to six weeks getting rid of excess water in the ground, with eight pumps discharging water as of last week.
"We've run into a lot of water issues there, so we had to drill a number of wells and we embarked upon what we would call a de-watering process,î he said, adding that the idea has been to keep the water table below the footings, which are about three to four feet thick and another three to four feet wide.
Marshall said to his understanding, that area of town has historically been a large aquifer, saturating the ground in that area.
"Until that land gets developed Ö and those roads put through, I think we're going to contend with this water problem for awhile, so we're taking all those necessary measures today to make sure that doesn't happen,î he said.
"The credit union has worked diligently with us on this for 18 months. I think it's a very positive situation."Larry Wright, director of operations, Town of Olds
