Another Red Deer fire station may move location to accommodate growth in the city’s east end.
Red Deer Emergency Services Station 3 may soon know its new home as a report has narrowed down the choices to three.
This was necessitated by the decision to move Station 4, currently at 30 Davison Dr., to a new location in the Timberlands neighbourhood. Station 4 had to be moved to provide better coverage in north east Red Deer.
Currently housed at 4340 32nd Street, Station 3 houses firetrucks, ambulances and emergency services personnel as well as the emergency services headquarters and administration. However, to meet the High Intensity Residential Fire Requirements both fire halls will have to be moved to a new locations in south east and north east Red Deer respectively.
Possible new locations for Station 3 include on 22nd Street in Aspen Ridge where land is set aside for a new firehall, at 40th Avenue and 32nd Street not far from its current location or at one of five potential sites neat the Collicutt Centre at the intersection of 32nd Street and 30th Avenue.
Council is being asked to give administration the approval to develop amendments to the Neighbourhood Area Structure Plan and the East Hill Major Area Structure Plan to begin the process of moving the fire halls into their new location while ensuring adequate fire protection.
l It may become easier for Red Deer residents to get their own local wobbly-pop as council will consider adding microbreweries as a permitted use to some neighbourhoods.
City council will debate a motion to define and add microbreweries as a discretionary use to two areas of Red Deer at their meeting scheduled for Monday, which could pave the way for the pubs producing local beer to set up shop in town.
In the last six months, the city has received two inquiries regarding microbreweries and has already processed a site exception for a similar use in the past year.
Currently, any microbrewery would require a site specific land use bylaw amendment.
The proposal council will debate would add micrbrobrewing as a discretionary use to the Riverlands and Railyards areas, proposed redevelopment projects west of Gaetz Avenue by the Red Deer River.
The proposal would allow for the small-scale production and packaging of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages and would include distribution and either a beer tasting room, a drinking establishment or a restaurant. It also stipulates that the floor area devoted to the production and packaging of beer shall be no more than 70 per cent.
l Council will consider the Red Deer Alcohol and Drug Strategy report. Originally presented at the Oct. 27 meeting, the strategy takes a made in Red Deer approach to addictions.
The strategy is built on four pillars: prevention, treatment, harm reduction and enforcement. It will capture a cross-section of the current addiction situation in Red Deer and use that information to better deliver services.
It also proposes a “drug court,” aimed at dealing with minor drug offences by means other than jail or drug and alcohol abstinence probation.
mcrawford@www.reddeeradvocate.com