The future of the Netook Crossing “business and residential community” planned for one mile east of Olds might well depend on the results of a fiscal impact study that's now in the works – and the reception it gets from Mountain View County council when it's completed.
The study is being commissioned and paid for by Neuroese Properties, owner of five quarter-sections on the north side of Highway 27, between Olds Highlands Golf Course and the QE II.
As reported in this week's Gazette, the project's developers managed to convince the county to participate in the study, but on a strictly limited basis. Councillors wanted to ensure they will not be bound to adopt the study's recommendations or accept its conclusions as gospel truth.
The most outspoken council critic of the plan, former reeve Paddy Munro, was reined in during much of last week's presentation by the time constraints placed on the delegation and the tight control over the proceedings exercised by the new reeve, Bruce Beattie. Nevertheless, the ardent carpenter from Sundre was able to cut loose a couple of times and put the proverbial screws to the developers.
One of those moments came when Neuroese agent Herb Styles said he looks south across Highway 27 to the Prodev (former Opus) business park and sees the colour green – “that's the colour of money.” Munro replied: “When I look out there I see green – the colour of weeds.” And then he launched into a blistering attack on the record of the south park developer: of unkept promises, sinking roads, upthrust manholes, leaking wastewater, billing issues, silt issues …
“Truly I don't see green,” Munro told Styles. “I see every day we spend more and more money dealing with this. I like development – development that makes money.”
Munro was hardly mollified by assurances that the problems were being dealt with, all at the developer's expense. For him and county council as a whole there are much bigger issues at stake – and that's why the fiscal impact study is so critical at this time.
Netook Crossing was the golden goose hatched by the previous administration and council to offset the projected, dramatic decline in oil and gas tax revenue. One of the aims of last week's report on “14 misperceptions” about Netook was to underscore the magnitude of that loss. If councillors can be convinced that the impending crisis is real and that large-scale development like Netook Crossing is a vital necessity to maintain services to county residents, their general attitude toward the project – which has ranged from skeptical and indifferent to outright hostile – should improve.
But the need to diversify the county tax base is only a starting point. Whether it's desperately needed or not, Netook Crossing has to be viable.
The cost of running piped water and sewer services from Olds – commission costs, constructing the lines, maintaining them, replacing them, being stuck with them if the development fizzles at some partly completed stage – is a major cause of apprehension. Again the developers say the end users will absorb all the costs. Now they have to convince council that their plan will work.
Another hurdle is the county's Memorandum of Agreement with the Town of Olds, which hands over to the town 20 per cent of property taxes from the development in exchange for water and sewer hookups. Many councillors have trouble swallowing those terms and on the face of it the reasoning behind them seems weak. The MOA is a case where Olds council might be able to help both parties come to terms by making a tactical concession – all in the name of sustainability, of course. Call it fair trade, because residential development at Netook, if it does happen, will benefit Olds businesses and add to the county's per-capita share for town facilities.
Then there's the issue of residential densities high enough to pay for piped services – a hot political potato in the county. The rallying cry of “no towns outside the towns” was catchy rhetoric during last year's election. However, when public hearings on Netook Crossing North were held earlier that year, not one resident from the area spoke in opposition to the concept. The county is reviewing its Municipal Development Plan based on information gathered at roundtables and from public opinion surveys. But even if a majority of residents from other parts of the county don't like the idea of high-density growth outside towns, should that view carry the day for the Olds area, where people might have a different opinion? One of the common themes of the MDP roundtables was to not use a cookie-cutter approach to planning, but let each area have what each area's residents feel comfortable with.
Again it comes down to risk. If the fiscal impact study can satisfactorily address the multitude of concerns about future risk to county taxpayers, it will leave council with a political decision. And councillors will have to give some weight to the fact that investors have to date plowed $20 million into the project in good faith. For now the ball is in the developers' hands.
