After six years of planning and discussion, the City of Cold Lake and MD of Bonnyville’s annexation will be taking effect Jan. 1.
In the new year, the City of Cold Lake will grow by 11 quarters of land, which will be “gifted” by the MD of Bonnyville.
“In essence, it’s to try and make the City of Cold Lake more viable into the future. Those quarters will give them the room to expand through either residential or commercial development,” explained Reeve Greg Sawchuk, adding the trade-off is the municipality’s way of “being neighbourly.”
“There’s no transfer of funds coming to the MD because of it. It really is more like a gift to the city,” he continued.
The process started in 2013 with Cold Lake’s request for lands adjacent to Hwy. 28 from the MD of Bonnyville.
“We’ve been working on this for several years. It’s been a long journey,” Mayor Craig Copeland stated.
The city wanted the land in order to not only grow, but also clean up their boundaries.
“The quarter sections that we will be annexing, there’s a lot of benefits for the city. One of them is that it will make the shape of our municipality better,” said Copeland, adding the city is in almost a dumbbell shape currently and annexing the lands will fix that.
Copeland feels the negotiations between the City of Cold Lake and MD went on “for a few years longer than we wanted it to,” but that the change in council around the MD’s table during the municipal election helped move the process along.
“It was a big break when the council changed at the MD of Bonnyville. We saw a lot of movement very fast.”
When it comes to residents living within the annexation area, Sawchuk said they’ve made arrangements to allow property owners to retain the lower tax rate of the two municipalities for the next 50 years, or until they sell or develop their land.
“The biggest concern for lots was whether or not their taxes would change… In this case, they’re protected tax-wise,” Sawchuk detailed.
He added, the MD was happy to provide Cold Lake with the land it needed to continue to expand their community.
“It creates opportunities for growth within the city, which is important. They were getting somewhat limited in terms of land to develop on, and this will give them plenty of opportunity to do that.”
For Copeland, it’s a step in the right direction.
When developers showed interest in the City of Cold Lake, they had pointed out property along Hwy. 28, and were disappointed to learn it wasn’t city land.
“When there was a lot of people coming into town and showing interest in developing in Cold Lake, we heard a lot of comments about the other side of the highway not being a part of the city,” Copeland explained.
Once they take over ownership, they will clean up the quarters and get ready for future development.
Copeland said, “It’s closure, and it’s good to have it completed.”
