There is room for two commercial industrial parks in Barrhead

Town of Barrhead mayor Dave McKenzie is characterizing a rift between two landowners who believe the town was competing directly with them for potential customers using taxpayers’ money as a misunderstanding.

In an advertisement in Jan. 22 Barrhead Leader, Michele Steele voiced her concerns with the town’s plans to develop a 14-acre parcel of land.

Michele is a relative of Ray and Sean Steele, who bought a 40-acre parcel, adjacent to the town’s property in 2007, to develop a light-industry and business park.

“It was a misunderstanding of what the town’s intention is,” McKenzie said, adding he met with Ray, Sean, and Michele on Jan. 22.

In 2011, the town purchased a five-acre parcel of land for $175,000 near the Barrhead Continuing Care Centre, with the expressed purpose of building the swimming pool.

However, when the town decided to build the swimming pool on the old site in 2015, council created an area structure plan in an effort to commercially develop the parcel, as well as the adjacent nine-acre parcel, which they purchased from the Schneider-Schmigelski family for $318,500 in October 2017.

In the advertisement, Michele said Ray and Sean had spent a considerable amount of resources, time, effort and money to develop the park and questioned why the town was pursuing a commercial venture, potentially taking away business away from their park.

She then stated that the town was not doing enough to attract potential development to the area in terms of marketing the community and suggested a potential tax or utility rebate as an incentive to attract new business.

“They [Steele’s] are looking for different clients than what we are looking for. The town’s land borders residential, so we can’t really go after that light-industrial type of client,” McKenzie said.

In 2014, the Barrhead Leader interviewed Sean who said a major restaurant and hotel chain had expressed interest in purchasing lots, as well as an unspecified number of oil companies who were investigating setting up a number of prefabricated buildings.

Unfortunately, he said one of the issues which bogged down negotiations was Alberta Transportation refusing to grant access to the property from Highway 18. It’s something that has also been a stumbling block for the town.

McKenzie added that at the same time the town is trying to attract potential developers for its property, they are doing so for the Steele property.

“As we get more aggressive in our marketing of the community and start seeking out companies that can put facilities in, we will also be looking for potential fits for the Steele’s industrial park. It is like putting a jigsaw puzzle together, we need to fit everything where it best suits the properties and the community,” he said.

The Leader also reached out to the Steele family through Michele and they said they wouldn’t be commenting on the meeting except to say that it was productive and it addressed their concerns.