Blatchford
Its well known that the Blatchford development on the former city airport site has received both some praise and much criticism in its 10+ years of tenure. The initial vision was for it to lead an energy-focused re-development which to date has not been successful using standard building metrics. There have been fewer residences built and those that have cost more than comparable residences in other parts of the city.
Blatchford has been a costly project not just for builders and residents. The city says they have invested at least $167 million thus far, though Councellor Tim Cartmell suggests the amount is closer to $232 million.
Last April Mayor Amarjeet Sohi suggested Blatchford was “not a huge success." Councellor Anne Stevenson says Blatchford hit several milestones in 2024 which were an “inflection point” to judge the project’s success.
The city initially marked 2042 as when it expects Blatchford to house 30,000 residents within its 536 acres. From where we are today it may be too early to label Blatchford as a blight or a late bloomerr for Edmonton.
Edmonton Centre MP and Federal Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Official Languages Randy Boissonnault announced the $23.7 million is earmarked for the Blatchford district energy sharing system. Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said the money will be spent on installing an additional heat pump and auxiliary equipment, as well as funding the design and construction of a growing distribution piping network and sewer heat exchange energy centre.
There's no denying that Blatchford needs much help to fulfill its initial vision of recreating the old municipal airport property into a climate friendly model of urban development. So far Blatchford has fallen short of its objective, and investing more taxpayers' hard-earned dollars into it may prove to be a bad investment.
The announcement may have served the objective of getting Randy Boissonnault's name out of the news cycle because of his former business partner is being questioned by the parliamentary ethics committee about statements to that contradict public records. I'm just wary enough to think that Trudeau will use this Federal funding for his/the Liberal climate change agenda. It didn't take long for the huge signs to be erected.
Its been 15 years since the plans for Blatchford were first revealed and 10 years since city council approved funding for the redevelopment of the former downtown airport, with projections of housing up to 30,000 people. As of now the plans and ROI on the funding have both fallen short and it remains to be seen if 2024 will be the year Blatchford takes off or is grounded.
Like local and translocal jurisdictions in much of the western world Edmonton council has paid heed to and invested in the "green" movement. Not all investments, including "green" bring the promised and expected return. Fortunately there are are many like Lorne Gunter who discern this and will say the "green" emperors have no clothes.
There are 15 steps that a community must go through to become an official Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues (EFCL) member community. It usually takes about 2 years to complete all the steps but the Allard community accomplished that in record time. The Allard community will take the final step will happen on November 22nd when Allard holds its first annual general meeting and board election.
Although people in Blatchford would also like to become an EFCL member Baltchford has been going through growing pains and doesn't even qualify for step 1 as yet. Though becoming an official EFCL member is not yet possible Blatchford have does have a non-profit Community Society presided over by Heather MacKenzie. The Blatchford Community Society benefits from engaging with the EFCL as it advocates for and liaises with the City regarding the community.
I think Blatchford was largely driven by a council who bought into a "climate change, green agenda." They may well have thought they were leading the way but the fact that few are yet following calls that into question.