Westlock - A three-year process to close what would have originally been 99 Street is finally complete.
At their Oct. 13 meeting, Town of Westlock councillors unanimously passed second and third readings of the 99th Street Road Closure Bylaw 2020-16, ending a process that began in April 2017.
In a request for decision presented by CAO Simone Wiley, it noted that In 2017 council and administration reviewed several options for roadway location within the town-owned East Business Park — the undeveloped 99 Street runs east to west, south of businesses including Martin Deerline, Xtreme Powersports, Westlock Ford and Fountain Tire.
By deciding to relocate 99th Street from its currently registered location the municipality had to close the registered road right of way via bylaw. On July 13, 2020 council gave first reading to Bylaw 2020-16, while on Sept. 24 the provincial transportation minister approved the edict, a requirement under the Municipal Government Act.
“They (the province) did so promptly versus last time when it sat for over a year and a half,” noted mayor Ralph Leriger.
“The process has gone fairly quickly. They did expedite it for us as promised,” Wiley added.
Closure background
The initiative dates back to April 2017, when council at the time held a public hearing for the closure and some business owners in the area expressed concerns over how they’d access their properties.
At the time, Ron Dales of Haverhill Enterprises, whose building is located along 113 Ave. south of Boston Pizza, pointed out that he would need 99 St. to access his lot.
“In order to obtain servicing to my newly created lot, the town insisted that I pay for a percentage of the servicing, water, sewer, gas and electrical, to the town lands. The services are all sized for development of the town lands. This was negotiated with the understanding that 99 St. would some day be built, and my building was sited in such a way that anticipated this future,” wrote Dales in a May 12, 2017 e-mail to Wiley, who was then town director of development.
Wiley told Dales that it wasn’t feasible for the town to service an entire road for one property and that 99 St. is mostly meant to access town property to the south.
She recalled that in 2017, the intent behind closing the entire portion of 99 St. was to “open up the parcel to a future plan.”
According to correspondence presented by administration at council’s June 8, 2020 meeting, Alberta Transportation didn’t follow through with the process which requires the minister’s approval.
“In the summer of 2018, I sent an inquiry to Alberta Transportation, wondering where that was at and I did not receive a response at that time. It wasn’t, I suppose, high on the priority list at that time to follow up and see what was going on,” Wiley told council at its June 8 meeting.
When the provincial government did answer the municipality’s director of operations, they advised the 2017 bylaw should be rescinded and the process restarted if there had been new development, change of ownership in the area, if landowners’ thoughts on the closure have changed, or if council itself has changed.
• With files from Andreea Resmerita
George Blais, TownandCountryToday.com
