Intersection Improvements, and More!

Badly needed improvements will finally happen at the 68th Ave & Poplar Drive intersection. This spot has been become dangerous as traffic has increased due to the development of the Country Side South (& North) and Signature Falls areas.

The Intersection, Highlighted By The BLUE Marker

As these new neighbourhoods filled up it increased the number of people travelling east/west along 68th ave. A few years ago council responded to resident concerns by putting in a pedestrian activated crosswalk but it looks like the time has come for full signalization. If I remember correctly the crosswalk light was put in so it wouldn't have to be moved when this full-scale development came along.

Anyhow, keep your eyes open for the changes happening at 68th & Poplar - right near the Shell Station.

City Media Release:

Improvements Planned for 68 Avenue
Efforts to improve traffic flow in the Poplar Drive-68 Ave. area are under way.

Installation of temporary traffic lights at the 68 Avenue and Poplar Drive intersection will occur this week in an attempt to ease congestion and improve safety. After the lights are set up, they will flash for one week to allow motorists to become accustomed to the new system. They will flash yellow on 68th Avenue and red on Poplar Drive. Flashing yellow directs drivers to proceed with caution; flashing red means to stop the same as at a stop sign.

“This project is an important priority to complete as this section of the City has become busier in recent years,” says Colin Farynowski, Transportation Engineering Supervisor. ”With the ever increasing amount of motorists in the area, long wait times and lack of traffic signals, it was apparent that an improvement was needed.”

In addition to new traffic lights, plans to twin 68 Avenue and several intersection improvements will help address the heavy traffic flow through the area. The remainder of the upgrades are expected to begin in 2010.

Alberta at the IMCL Conference

As the IMCL conference as wound on it's been interesting to note some of the attendees here from Alberta and western Canada.

Some of the elected officials I've seen at the conference are; Red Deer Mayor, Morris Flewwelling, Strathcona County Councillors Linda Osinchuk & Vic Bidzinski and Medicine Hat Councillor, John Hammill, Kelowna Councillor Andre Blanleil.

There are also quite a few Canadian planners, parks department staff and other administrators coming from Victoria to Regina to Hamilton.

CHMC Report on GP Real Estate Market (Apr 09)

Just noticed that Grande Prairie realtor Sandra Easton has some great info on her website. What really caught my eye was the latest CMHC report on the GP real estate market. It provides a great overview of how the market has changed over the last few years and how it puts the recent "decline" in housing prices in perspective.

This shows how the market, including local builders and developers, really ramped up production to try and meet the demand of the last few years and how that demand dropped off sharply.

This slide shows the average selling price of single family homes - notice how the recent drop in prices still leaves the average price well above 2005. This slide in prices might not be over yet but it hasn't been as steep as one might have thought.

This final slide looks at the rental market and overlays the changes in apartment vacancy rates with the average monthly rental price. You can see how the limited supply (near-zero vacancy rates in '05, '06 & '07) drove up the costs to rent and how as the vacancy has gone up the cost has come down, slightly.

Interesting info.

IMCL Conference, Portland - Day One

A very quick update on the first day of the IMCL Conference...

In large part the the morning centred around two themes:

1. The built environment of our communities has a deep impact on our culture/social development.

What I took away: Ideally, if communities are built to be safe and beneficial for children it will ultimately improve life for everyone. A pretty good point if you think about it - I mean; what are our children learning during their day to day lives in our modern communities?

I'd suggest they are learning that you drive to go buy a carton of milk, that you play alone in your own backyard (on your own swing set) and that "nature" is also something you have to drive to. Broad generalizations, I know, but there's some truth to it.

If left unchecked these trends can ultimately lead to communities where people don't know their neighbour, physical activity drops & obesity rates increase. The good news is that we can design our communities in ways that encourage active forms of transportation (like walking or cycling) and in ways that bring nature in to everyone's day to day experience.

These are all very familiar themes that have come up from our MDP public consultation.

2. Regional Planning and Addressing Sprawl

The bottom line here is that sprawl likely can't be addressed without some form of regional planning. And, ultimately there needs to be some sort of legislated boundary that limits urban growth - often called called an Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) down here.

Oregon set up regional planning back in the late 70's. In the Portland area this means that there are 25 different municipalities (each with their own council) and a Metro Council that handles a few select services, delivered over the whole region. It's essentially another layer of government between the local (municipal) and state levels.

I don't believe that adding another layer of government is the right way to go to address sprawl in Alberta - it's not in our 'DNA' to support something like that. But the current system that leaves all these decisions subject to negotiation between local councils isn't working. When it comes down to it there's too much self-interest; municipalities are competing with one another for development that provides property tax revenue.

Sure, it's possible for a municipality to take an altruistic approach and and restrict urban growth within it's boundary... but that's really not useful if the development just hops to an adjacent municipality.

I think there are some structural changes that need to happen in Alberta if we want to get serious about addressing sprawl and protecting our valuable, productive farmland and natural areas.

I guess that was really just the morning. In the afternoon I attended:

Re-thinking Approaches to Design Led Community Participation
Kind of a weak session - but at least one very cool & fun idea I'd like to try in GP

Sustainable Community Planning Charrettes: a Collaborative Approach to Sustainable Planning
I've heard of Charrettes before and it was interesting to hear that there will be a training session by the National Charrette Institute in Olds in a few weeks.

The Golden Necklace: Southern California's Regional Multi-Use Trail System
The project is huge and probably has lessons for the Wapiti Corridor Planning Group in the GP Area or the River Valley Alliance in the capital region.

Quantifying Impacts: Urban Parks & Art Installation
This was a thought provoking session that looked at efforts to quantify the value of parks and public art in hard money terms. Things like; do property values increase near parks/natural spaces? Do large public art installations have a noticeable effect on the local economy?

That's all from day one - on to day two!

In Portland for the 47th Annual IMCL Conference

First off; Happy Mothers Day! Unfortunately I'm not in Grande Prairie to take my mom out for brunch, I'm starting off this Mother's Day in Portland, Oregon - sitting in Peet's Coffee. So, Mom, the best I can say is that I'm thinking of you and I hope the phone call will suffice - thanks for being you!

I'm in Portland for the 47th Annual Making Cities Liveable Conference (IMCL). I hadn't heard of the event until last fall when all of council was emailed an invitation to come. The invite immediately piqued my interest because Portland has a very good reputation for great neighbourhood planning, redevelopment and public transportation. Added to the fact that the host city has a great reputation the conference has a great program - that really strikes home.

In fact, the sessions really seem to speak to a lot of the themes that are coming out in the public consultation process of our Municipal Development Plan review. Here are a few sessions that caught my eye:

• Cities for health & well-being
Urban planning for physical & social health. Active living & the walkable, bikeable city. Planning for
commuting by foot and bike. Land Use principles for the healthy city. Health effects of sprawl. Sprawl, lack of community & social pathology. Dangers of social isolation for the young & the elderly. Psychological effects of the built environment. Making streets work to improve social & physical health.

• Integrating transit and land-use
Make towns - instead of traffic planning & housing development. Evaluating TODs: case studies. Including transit in development review. Environmental justice in transportation planning. Innovative new TOD projects.
(GP's Transit Master Plan is due to be released shortly)

• Regional planning for healthy cities
Sustainable regional transportation & land-use planning. Promoting regional identity. Curbing sprawl. Focusing development in town centers. Achievements in limiting big box retail.

• Nature in the urban environment
Importance of contact with nature for health & well-being. Natural urban places for exercise, adventure, relaxation & stimulation. Natural beauty & well-being. Designing & restoring parks, community gardens, wild areas. Restoring biodiversity.
(GP has a Urban Park Master Plan being developed right now)

So with all those great sessions (and many others) it looks to be a worthwhile week and I'm happy that I chose to come here and forego the FCM conference that happens at the end of the month in Whistler. During the week I'll be posting from the conference, covering the highlights of the sessions. Registration is today at 1pm and I'm looking forward to getting started!

How The Provincial Budget Drove Up Taxes in GP

Last night at council we gave final reading to the 2009 property tax bylaw. Unfortunately we had to increase property taxes more than we had predicted back at budget time last fall. This unexpected increase wasn't something we were happy to do of course but it had to be done.

The crux of the issue is that the Provincial Government chopped money out of the Municipal Sustainability Initiative grant when they delivered their budget a few weeks ago. Even though it was distributed unfairly, when it was announced the MSI was supposed to be a program that would allow municipalities to make long term planning decisions. Listening to that direction here in GP we went ahead and put that money to use; it makes up a significant part of our funding strategy for the new aquatics centre and multiplex. So the unexpected reduction in the MSI is a big problem.

This is a problem for any municipality in Alberta that took the Province at it's word and made plans for the MSI money. Those rich municipalities who were just putting the MSI money away in reserves for "future projects" are probably ok but for those like Grande Prairie who used it to deliver on community priorities are scrambling.

See the city's media release below for more detailed info:

"Media Release
May 05, 2009

Reduced Provincial Funding Results in Higher Property Taxes

City Council gave third reading on a bylaw Monday that sets property tax levels for 2009.

Bylaw C-1225 raises taxes by 9.4% to cover a $2.5 million shortfall in Municipal Sustainability Initiative (MSI) funding. The City received $4.7 million of an anticipated $7.2 million in MSI dollars.

City Administration had projected a 7.5% property tax increase for 2009.

MSI funding was decreased by $200 million across the province. Grande Prairie’s share was allocated to the construction of the Aquatics and Wellness Multiplex.

Twenty-two per cent of total property taxes collected in Grande Prairie are remitted to the education system.

“It is unfortunate that Provincial budget changes have such an immediate effect on residents in the form of a larger than anticipated property tax rate increase,” says Mayor Dwight Logan. ”We are mindful of economic conditions in the community and had been hopeful for more MSI funding.”

Property taxes are calculated by yearly assessments, taking into consideration average growth and market increases or decreases. The growth increase for Grande Prairie in the 2009 tax year is estimated at 5.4% and the average market value has actually decreased by 5.8%.

The market value of properties within Grande Prairie has changed slightly. Houses or low density residential homes have dropped in value by 8.7%, apartments have decreased by 17.4% and non-residential properties have increased by 3.9%, based on July 1, 2008 assessments.

A mill rate is established by dividing the revenue requirements by the assessment base and multiplying that number by 1000.

For 2008, a home owner whose house in Grande Prairie assessed at $303,900 would have paid $2639 in property taxes. The same house will now be assessed at $277,500 and the property holder will pay $2887 at the new rate, an increase of $248. The difference is equal to the cost of approximately 23 litres of gasoline a month, over a year."

City of Brooks Recognizes GPs Greatness

The Grande Prairie Storm had a great season, wining the AJHL and going on to the Doyle Cup.

The win in the AJHL finals was over the Brooks Bandits and it was enough to open the eyes of the Mayor Shields of Brooks to how "Great" Grande Prairie is. He's a good sport.

(click to enlarge)