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Westgate Developments Ltd. submits area structure plan

New subdivisions on the southside of Westlock are one step closer to reality. Westgate Developments Ltd.
Westgate Developments Ltd.’s Tammy Joel Kemna, backed by business partner Jim Biblow (right) and engineer Rob Wartz, walks town council-lors through the area structure plan
Westgate Developments Ltd.’s Tammy Joel Kemna, backed by business partner Jim Biblow (right) and engineer Rob Wartz, walks town council-lors through the area structure plan for Greenfield Estates and Westgate Business Park June 12.

New subdivisions on the southside of Westlock are one step closer to reality.

Westgate Developments Ltd. submitted the combined area structure plan of Greenfield Estates and Westgate Business Park to the Town of Westlock at the June 12 council meeting. That was the first opportunity for council to see the plan and with that, council passed first reading of the bylaw and scheduled a public hearing for July 4 — the June 26 council meeting was moved to July 4.

The town’s Municipal Development Plan (MDP) requires an area structure plan to be completed and adopted by council and a hearing must be held before that final step can happen.

“We took all of that formatting, the policies and procedures from the Town of Westlock and made sure that we had that within the area structure plan,” said Westgate Developments Ltd.’s Tammy Joel Kemna.

The plan includes the layout of the development, timeframe, land use and future development, as well as information on recreation, population density, general location of major transportation routes and public utilities.

Kemna presented the plan with amendments that were made with input from a May 10 open house. The changes include more duplexes for higher-density living.

“That was taking into consideration the feedback that we had from the community members and what they felt was a real need, and that was for the duplex lots,” she said.

Westgate Developments Ltd. is in the process of developing Westgate Business Park, the area south of the Westlock Healthcare Centre between 100 Ave and Highway 44, and Greenfield Estates, east of the Rotary Spirit Centre and west of 98A Avenue.

The two areas include low, medium and high-density housing to accommodate a 500 to 600-population increase to Westlock, according to the structure plan’s estimates.

Greenfield Estates has been designed with 112 lots. Of those, 58 will be R1 (low density) and 54 will be R2 (medium density), which includes two separate townhomes with six units in each.

“The ratio is actually fairly evenly balanced and that was the outcome of the open house and speaking with community members,” Kemna said. “It was actually before more single-family residential lots than there were duplex lots.”

In Westgate Business Park, the development is commercial mixed-use alongside two R3 (high-density) lots to accommodate a condo building and seniors’ assisted living housing with a maximum of 80 units. The mixed-use business park envisions highway commercial, professional buildings and light industrial lots.

As it stands now, the land is zoned as agricultural, so the land use would have to be rezoned to mixed-use residential and commercial.

Kemna said from her discussions with the town’s CAO and director of development services, there were noted deviations in lot sizes and lands from the town’s policies and bylaws, one example being in Greenfield Estates.

“The lots that are to the far south … those lots are to be 35-metres deep but these can only be 33 because of the existing infrastructure that’s in place,” she said. “When we submit the area structure plan, it’s something that we will need approval and have it looked at as far as a deviation to the Town of Westlock’s land use bylaws.”

Other deviations include connections to existing infrastructure not meeting today’s design specifications. Kemna noted through initial surveys of the existing subdivision’s infrastructure, they found the manholes had a difference in depth and elevation from the town’s new construction standards.

“If there is a need for us to bring our connections to yours, we’re not going to meet the standards that are of today, so that would be a deviation,” she said.

As for the architectural guidelines and the styles of the homes, she said those would be submitted once the town adopts the area structure plan.

“We’re not doing anything extreme, we’re not bringing in some very nouveau design in our concepts, so we didn’t really feel at this time that it was necessary to set the stage for all the architectural controls.”

Although the area structure plan has been submitted, she noted that several pieces were still missing. The Traffic Impact Assessment for Westgate Business Park — that report for the Greenfield development has already been submitted — and the Environmental Phase 1 report are still in the works. Kemna said the engineers have told her that at this point in the Environmental Phase 1 report, nothing stands out that would be an environmental impact.

Approval process

Town CAO Dean Krause explained that this was the first time council has seen the area structure plan in its entirety. Now that council has approved first reading, town administration will take that plan and review it through every town department.

“Operations will review it from an operating stand point from snow removal, to Infrastructure and the Traffic Impact Assessment to see how it affects our traffic and roads,” Krause said. “The fire department will review it from their perspective. Development will review it in accordance with the MDP. Parks will review everything from playgrounds to grass cutting.”

Each will compile a list of questions for the developer and if amendments are needed to the plan, those will be brought back to council.

According to the area structure plan, once the proposed plan with detailed construction engineering is submitted and approved, the goal is to start land development construction later this summer.

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