OLDS — A big goal for the town’s economic development secretariat is to have brownfield sites redeveloped, and one way to do that is to fund that work through some kind of taxation, chief administrative officer Michael Merritt says.
Brownfield sites are plots of land generally previously used for commercial or industrial purposes that may contain pollutants such as oil, gas or other hazardous materials.
Olds contains several such sites.
"We’ve also looked at a community revitalization levy for the Uptowne area which would have remedied a number of those brownfield sites,” Merritt said during a March meeting.
“Unfortunately, that program is probably on hiatus for a long time so that’s not one we can utilize,” he added.
Merritt said Larry Wright, the town’s strategy and technology officer, will likely bring that idea to the town’s new Business Retention, Investment and Expansion (BRI&E) committee, which is expected to be set up by late spring.
During a presentation to council, Wright said several brownfield sites in the community, especially in the core, stem from a devastating fire that hit the town in October 1978.
Coun. Mary Jane Harper asked Wright what strategy he has to get some of those brownfield sites developed.
She cited the former Texaco property (now owned by Imperial Oil) at the corner of Highway 27 and 49th Avenue as one example.
Wright said in that particular case, several potential buyers have indicated interest in that site so he and operations director Scott Chant have tried several times to find out what the precise status of that land is to but to no avail.
“We note since 2009 we’ve had brownfield redevelopments of 33 acres in Olds itself redeveloped,” Wright said.
He cited the former Cipperly garage at the corner of 51st Street and 51st Avenue as one site he’d like to see redeveloped in some way.
Wright said they may be able to leverage some federal dollars to do that work “if we can tie a developer together with us.”
