Plans for the next phase of Queens Business Park will come under public scrutiny a week from today.
The City of Red Deer will present its proposed Queens Business Park NE35 & SE35 Industrial Area Structure Plan at an open house on Jan. 27. The plan, which covers approximately 310 acres south of Hwy 11A and west of Range Road 281, would create large areas of light industrial land, including some designated for use as an eco-industrial park.
Dayna Facca, a planner with the City of Red Deer, said the area represents the final two quarter sections of the city’s West QE2 Major Area Structure Plan. That plan covers eight quarter sections, with much of the first six quarters already sold to developers.
The proposed NE35 & SE35 Industrial Area Structure Plan includes 182 acres of light industrial land and 22.5 acres of eco-industrial land, as well as municipal and environmental reserve areas. The latter component includes an existing natural wetland in the northeast corner of the plan area.
Attendees at the open house will be able to ask questions and comment on the plan, with their feedback to be incorporated into a report. It will then be presented to Red Deer’s municipal planning commission and city council.
If council gives first reading to the plan, a subsequent public hearing will be held before final adoption is considered.
“If all goes well, I’d say April,” said Facca of the timelines within which the plan could be approved by council. Once adopted, it would set the stage for future rezoning, subdivision and development.
By the time grading, servicing, rezoning and subdivision are complete, it would probably be 2016 before building permits would be issued for lots on the land, said Facca.
The previous phase of Queens Business Park included an eco-industrial park overlay as well. It allows for environmentally-sustainable features, such as alternative energy facilities and the opportunity for businesses to use the waste materials or byproducts of others.
It also specifies environmentally friendly design elements that must or can be used, including building materials, landscaping, recycling and pedestrian connectivity.
Next Tuesday’s open house will run from 4 to 7 p.m. in Activity Room 2 at G.H. Dawe Community Centre.