Town council votes 6-1 in favour of Chestermere becoming a city
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CHESTERMERE — Calgary’s fast-growing eastern neighbour has outgrown its status as a town, Chestermere council decided Monday night.
The community, which was only a summer village until 1993, will formally ask the province to rename it City of Chestermere at the start of next year.
It’s a move with no real effect on the municipality’s taxes or administration. But council hopes a new title makes the service-starved community more of a magnet for lucrative industrial and commercial development, or potentially for provincial infrastructure grants.
“The sooner we can get that competitive advantage, the sooner we can get access to the things residents want,” Mayor Patricia Matthews said.
Chestermere council voted 6-1 for the name change Monday, in front of a standing-room-only crowd that appeared largely opposed to the change.
“Is this the sort of thing that should go to plebiscite?” one resident asked at the meeting. The mayor said that option was too expensive, and public feedback from 250 people came after officials’ best efforts at formal consultation.
One of Alberta’s fastest-growing jurisdictions, Chestermere is home to 17,203 residents, this year’s local census states. It’s 2.5 times its size of a decade ago.
But it has few businesses contributing to property taxes. Its largest private employer is the Safeway, economic development officer Jean-Marc Lacasse said.
Less than five per cent of Chestermere’s property tax revenue comes from businesses, compared to half of Calgary’s.
Chestermere wants to draw more industrial and commercial projects so the tax base is big enough to offer many major urban trappings that don’t exist there, such as transit, curbside recycling pickup and a 311 hotline.
Councillors reasoned that the name “city” could give economic development staff a potent lure to developers who may overlook a town of the same size, or one so close to Calgary.
Lacasse said even before the switch, he’s heard interest from Calgary companies looking to relocate.
“They have shortlisted Chestermere, because by using the term city, for them it meant there was people, there were employees and there was a developed community,” he said.
Many residents were dubious city status would matter that much.
“I think making the place attractive to investment will bring investment,” said Peter Tindall.
“The name of the place won’t make any difference.”
Council members express hope the Alberta government will listen more to Chestermere’s grant requests if it’s one of the province’s 18 cities, instead of one of its 108 towns.
Any town with more than 10,000 residents can apply to become a city, though communities such as Okotoks, Cochrane and Strathmore have preferred to stick with the more humble title.
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