OLDS — Town council is putting a 10.6-acre chunk of Olds Cemetery land up for sale as part of an effort to provide more land for the Southeast Industrial Park.
Council made that decision during its Jan. 27 meeting. The sale price is expected to be $400,000.
“Right now, our cemetery sits at a little over 20 acres. With all lands factored in, we estimate, based on current burial rates, that we have about 200 years of growth available at the Olds Cemetery,” chief administrative officer Brent Williams said during discussion on the matter.
He added that administrative staff believe that “200 years of growth is a bit much.”
“Given the cemetery’s location in a prime industrial area with serviced land, the more suitable use would be to return approximately 10 acres into future industrial land,” Williams said.
He said the cemetery would be left with enough land for 35-45 years of growth.
Aside from the growth concern, Williams said, the industrial park “provides some challenges with the industry activity, whether it be debris, noise, traffic for users of the cemetery and for staff to maintain it.”
A town document regarding the matter says “any future development on this parcel will also be subject to a developer installing adequate fencing to ensure material does not migrate into the cemetery area.”
“I certainly can understand why you’d review the 200 years’ growth portion of this because everything’s going to be very, very different then,” Mayor Judy Dahl said.
Coun. Wanda Blatz spoke in favour of the plan.
“In light of what CAO Williams has recently said that we want to grow economic development and industrial land, I really believe that this is something that I can support and I think council should also consider,” she said.
Coun. Darren Wilson asked how the price for the land was determined.
Williams said a third-party appraisal of the land was done as required under the provincial government’s Municipal Government Act (MGA).
“This would meet the MGA’s threshold for disposal of land,” he said.
In an email, the Albertan asked Williams if the current cemetery will remain when a new one is created.
"The current cemetery will remain as is forever," he wrote.
He said the land where the lot to be sold will be created "was never part of the cemetery, so no infrastructure has been installed there."
Williams confirmed there's an ongoing trend for most people to be cremated thus requiring "substantially less room."
"If that trend continues, then the 35-45 year estimate for remaining space could increase," he wrote.
