The City of St. Albert is a growing mid-size city located on the northwestern edge of the City of Edmonton, known for a high quality of life, strong sense of community and extensive parks and natural space system. Urban Strategies was engaged by the City to develop a new Municipal Development Plan (MDP), a comprehensive planning document that will guide the City’s growth. This plan represents an important milestone in the evolution of this mid-size city. St. Albert’s current Municipal Development Plan, CityPlan was developed nearly 20 years ago, and this new MDP will provide an innovative and progressive planning policy framework that will guide the City’s future growth and development for the next 30 years, as it grows to 100,000 residents.
The plan responds to significant changes since the City’s previous MDP was created, including in the provincial planning policy framework, regional planning framework, changing economy and demographics, technological advances and climate change mitigation and adaption. This comprehensive plan will consider and address issues including housing and urban design, environmental conservation, healthy communities, regional cooperation, movement and connectivity and economic development, with the overarching goal of growing sustainably. This work has involved close collaboration and consultation with internal and external stakeholders and the wider public, using a range of tools and tactics to collect input to develop a plan that will build community support.
