A well-used gravel parking lot in the city may be paved in the future, thanks to a motion put forward by a city councillor.
St. Albert city council voted this week to have city develop a plan for paving the Lacombe Lake parking lot and add it to the 10-year capital plan. The project has a possible price tag of $2.15 million.
Although the paving project will now appear on the long-term capital plan, there's no guarantee the project will get funded as it will be measured against other projects when budget time rolls around.
But St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said she has doubts this project will ever get funding in the future, as it isn't enough of a priority to get funding in the upcoming budgets.
The project was one of two parking lot paving projects brought forward by motion by Coun. Mike Killick on Aug. 15. However, the second project — to pave the parking lot at the St. Albert Botanic Garden — was defeated by council majority, with only Coun. Shelley Biermanski, Coun. Sheena Hughes, and Killick in favour.
Killick said he thinks both destinations are used enough to warrant paved parking lots.
“These are very highly used parking lots,” Killick said. “The parking lot (at the Botanic Garden) is a mess; it's dusty when it's dry, it's full of potholes constantly ... and when it rains those potholes hold muddy water for weeks at a time.”
“From an overall accessibility point of view, and an aesthetic point of view, and I think looking just looking at it as a key asset in our city ... it is time to, I would say, finish the project by paving the parking lot,” he said of the Botanic Garden.
City staff haven’t received any formal complaints from the public about the condition of the Botanic Garden parking lot or the Lacombe Lake parking lot, and no public requests to pave either lot have been received, according to a report written by transportation manager Dean Schick.
Schick's report also says a preliminary estimate of paving the Lacombe Lake parking lot is about $2.15 million; however, that estimate is in 2019 dollars because that was the last time the city had considered paving the parking lot.
Schick noted if the city footed the bill for paving the parking lot it could set a new precedent, as the Botanic Garden is a non-profit that leases the land from the city. Typically projects like the paving would be the financial responsibility of the organization leasing the land.
Killick said he thought the project wouldn't be feasible for the St. Albert Botanic Park organization because the group just finished a lengthy fundraising effort last year for the brick path that runs from one end of the garden to the other.
“It's such a gem in our community, but the parking lot is such an eyesore,” Killick said.
“These existing gravel sites operate and function well with low maintenance costs in comparison to paved parking lot sites,” Schick wrote.
Council voted to create a project charter for the Lacombe Lake parking lot with only Mayor Cathy Heron and Coun. Natalie Joly opposed.
During debate, Joly, along with Heron, said they were opposed to both projects because she didn't think either project would be enough of a priority to be funded in upcoming city budgets, and because it would unnecessarily take up staff time.
“Although it feels good to create new capital charters, it makes you feel like you're doing something, it actually takes away time from the city when it's just not going to get funded because it's not ever going to hit the top of that priority list,” Joly said.
“It's expensive to keep these project charters up to date (and) it's expensive to create the project charters.”
