April 14 town council briefs

Posted on May 8, 2025 by Taber Times

By Cal Braid
Taber Times
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Town to advertise irrigation acres for sale

Town Procurement Specialist Megan Sushelnitski appeared before council to discuss the Eureka Lands irrigation acres that the Town wishes to sell. She told council that the St. Mary Irrigation District informed her that the acres could be sold for between $4,000 – $5,000 per acre. Sushelnitski suggested that the acres could be advertised through SMRID Marketplace.

 The Town is selling parcels for industrial development on the same land and must transfer or dispose of the irrigation acres before it can proceed with registering new subdivisions. The Town needs to sell no less than 92 acres to meet the requirement for registering the new subdivisions, the meeting agenda said. Irrigation acres can only be used for agricultural irrigation purposes and Taber has no requirement for irrigation acres on other Town-owned lands.

 Coun. Brewin said that he did not agree with the idea of selling through SMRID Marketplace. His preference, he said, would be to sell through an online auction with the condition that the buyer put 20 per cent down at the time of purchase and pay in full by Oct. 31.

 “That gives people the chance to arrange financing and also to make sure they have the land to put this irrigation on,” Brewin said. “I think the online bidding will attract more buyers and make people aware of it. St. Mary, as far as I understand, has a list of people that want to buy this land. The (list) are the first ones called and they get the first crack at it.”

 He believed a public auction would be a better way to market the acres. Additionally, he asked that the Town consider whether it would prefer to sell the land in smaller lots rather than as a whole.

 Brewin seemed to be the councillor with the best knowledge of the subject, and Mayor Prokop acknowledged as much. Brewin said that he had spoken to a couple of auctioneers who said they were eager to accommodate the sale and whose fees were negotiable.

 CAO Derrin Thibault told council that the administration had recommended the surety of a reserve bid. As the other councillors engaged in the discussion, numerous suggestions and preferences were offered. Council finally settled on a motion that would direct the administration to contact auctioneers and explore their fees versus advertising through SMRID and selling it independently with a reserve bid attached to it.

Recycling fee bylaw changed

 Council approved all readings of fee bylaw 10-2025 after hearing the extended producer responsibility (ERP) update report presented at the March 24 council meeting. The approval meant that the Town will now remove the residential recycling charge of $4.19/month from the residential recycling base rate fee.

 The EPR is applicable to producers of single use items, packaging, and paper products in the province. After the Alberta government passed new regulations for EPR, it shifted the financial and operational responsibility of recycling programs to the producers – instead of the municipality or its residents through utility costs.

 The Town has been paying a contractor to collect its recycling. Under the new EPR, the contractor will still do its job, but the Town (and its residents) won’t be paying.

 The agenda explained, “As this fee only covered 65 per cent of the recycling collection/disposal costs, we will still have 35 per cent savings in the operational budget as we will not be paying the contractor for that collection stream starting in April.”

50 St. land up for redistricting

 Council passed the first reading of a land use bylaw amendment for a 50 St. north property. The property owner(s) are applying to switch from ‘multiple land use districts’ to a ‘residential comprehensive development multiple dwelling district.’

 The acres just south of Taber Christian High School are in the planning stages of development and further readings, if passed, will warrant a public hearing. If the district is approved for R-4 designation, it will qualify to provide medium to high-density multi-residential development on a comprehensively-developed site. The permitted and discretionary use would include all the standard features and infrastructure of a residential neighbourhood.

The legal description for the property’s civic address is 6997 50 St.

Church’s Texas Chicken

 Council approved the development permit for Church’s Texas Chicken at 5506 46 Ave. The permit specifically called for approval of a restaurant with a drive-through in an approved shopping centre. New development permits typically have conditions attached to their approvals. In this case the nine conditions relate to permits, inspections, conformity to standards, etc. The restaurant is the first occupant of the space in the larger commercial development that continues onto the adjacent property.

Subway

Council approved the development permit for a new Subway at 5508 46 Ave. Designated as a restaurant in an approved shopping centre, Subway will  be located in Unit C of a three unit strip that already houses the new Starbucks. The same nine conditions required for the above mentioned Church’s Texas Chicken apply to Subway.