On the Spruce Grove Regular Council Meeting Agenda of April 12, 2010 was a Public Hearing regarding Bylaw C-730-10 Road Closure Bylaw which would affect the existing access roads to the parcel of land that the City is “assembling” for the development of the Gateway Towne Centre Development.

A representative of the current land owners was present. Making reference to a letter from the owner’s lawyers, which was attached to the meetings agenda, the representative stated that even though they are in negotiations with the City, the purchase by the City may not be successful. And this Road Closure Bylaw was premature and could reduce the value of the property. There were no questions by the Mayor or Council for the presenter or regarding the Bylaw.

When it came time to give second and third reading to the Bylaw the Mayor cancelled the readings and approval for future review.

From what I know of the project to date is that the City has spent a bundle on a study to justify this development.

Council and the Administration have gone ahead on our behalf to borrow $8.9 million to “assemble” the land. This means “We” are on the hook for $400,000.00 per year in interest to the bank.

Now when Council gave the Administration permission to borrow the $8.9 million last fall to purchase the land giving us the impression that the purchase was a done deal.

And now we find out that “We” the City may not be successful in actually purchasing the land. In the mean time “We” have gone ahead and arranged for developer(s) of the project.

Now most of us are not privy to all the dealings with this project but all this seems to raise a number of questions that the Council and Administration need to answer.

First of all how much of the $8.9 million have we actually borrowed to date and how much of it has actually gone to the purchase, oops I mean, gone to assemble the land to date?

How much more land needs to be purchased?

Can the project even go ahead without this land?

To acquire this land will we need to borrow more money, if so how much?

How much of the assembled land has been purchase by the developer(s) to date?

At first glance it seems that the City Administration has got the cart before the horse here.

On our behalf they paid for a grand plan, borrowed a grand amount and procured some grand developers without first making sure they could purchase the land.

When public government gets involved with what should be left to private enterprise these are the risks we take. Now only time will tell the eventual outcome. But in the mean time it would be nice if the City Administration and Council could give us the tax payer some concrete reassurance that this project is still afloat.