City invests in developing industrial lands

The city will spend the $875,000 it will cost to do the preliminary work preparing for a much more expensive overhaul of two local industrial park areas.

City staff said they hope to have funding from other levels of government when it comes time to spend about $48.5 million to improve the Lasalle/Elizabella and Fielding Road industrial parks.

At a June 29 council meeting, city businesses development officer Jean-Mathieu Chénier said estimate to develop the Lasalle/Elizabella industrial park area is about $7.5 million. The money would be spent to upgrade water and sewer services, as well as roads.

He said there are several water main breaks on the road, so the area is already a priority for capital investment.

“There’s also a strong desire to develop and expand in this area from several businesses,” he said.

The city will spend $375,000 from its industrial land reserve fund to do a detailed engineering design for the project.

Chénier noted the costs to complete Fielding Road will be “significant.” It will take about $41 million to develop the water, sewer and roads, but added the opportunities are also significant.

The sewer line alone will cost $26 million.

Fielding Road will also be completely resurfaced to a two-lane roadway with paved shoulders.

Chénier said the recommended course of action with Fielding Road is to proceed with a $500,000 environmental assessment. The funds will come from the city’s industrial land reserve fund.

He said ground will likely be broken on the Lasalle/Elizabella project by spring 2012 and on Fielding Road within three to five years.

The city is already looking at ways to fund these projects, he said.

Besides seeking funding for the projects from other levels of government, the city sometimes shares the cost of installing infrastructure — such as sewers and roads — with businesses that want to build in unserviced areas, Chénier said.

The process of identifying, prioritizing and developing a plan regarding the city’s industrial lands started in 2009, when city council directed staff to look into the issue.

In February, councillors were presented a list of eight areas to be considered, and they further directed staff to narrow down the areas.

Ward 7 Coun. Dave Kilgour said the city cannot afford to let businesses choose to go somewhere else because of lack of developed industrial land. He said the city has “to move forward with this.”

“What we have to do as a council...is make sure when a business comes to town, we are not trying to decide for them (where they locate),” he said. “We want them to decide where they want to be...and get that land ready for them so that they can make the decision as to where those jobs are going to go.”

Ward 1 Coun. Joe Cimino said he supports the idea “110 per cent.”

He said the city has an abundance of serviced, residential lots ready to go, and said the retail sector is thriving as well.

“The one area that we should be sticking our noses in is the industrial,” he said. “The payoff in terms of new assessment growth (and) jobs...is huge. It’s unimaginable, actually, the effects this will have and we’ve been waiting for this for many, many years.”