Lethbridge Minute: Issue 286

Lethbridge Minute - Your weekly one-minute summary of Lethbridge politics

📅 This Week In Lethbridge: 📅

• City Council meets tomorrow at 12:30 pm, and among the items on the agenda is second and third reading of a borrowing bylaw to fund the next phase of the Lethbridge Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion. The bylaw would authorize the City to borrow $261,260,000, repaid over a period not to exceed 20 years from the Province of Alberta or another authorized lender, toward a project with a total capital budget of $285 million. Administration says the plant is operating at or above its current engineered capacity of about 40 million litres a day, which limits the City's ability to accommodate residential, commercial and industrial growth, and the expansion would add another 20 million litres a day of treatment capacity. Rather than property taxes, the debt is to be repaid through utility user fees and charges set high enough to cover the principal and interest as it comes due. Council gave the borrowing bylaw first reading on June 23rd, so tomorrow's vote would clear the way for the City to finalize the financing.
  
  
• Also before Council tomorrow, at a 3:00 pm public hearing, is a City-initiated overhaul of the London Road Area Redevelopment Plan, the neighbourhood blueprint first adopted in 2018. Among the more notable changes, Administration is proposing to rescind a redevelopment levy of $1,500 per net additional dwelling unit, a charge it describes as the only one of its kind in Lethbridge and possibly in all of Alberta, and one that has collected no money since 2018. The amendments would also remove extra locational rules that make it harder to redevelop London Road than comparable neighbourhoods, drop restrictions that limit new child care facilities to one per block on corner lots at least 12.2 meters wide, and simplify height limits by deferring to the Land Use Bylaw. Staff note that between the plan's adoption and the end of 2024, London Road's population grew by a single person and a net of 13 homes, leaving it about 30% below its 1950s peak even as the city grew by nearly 400%. One policy the review recommends keeping is the current limit on new front driveways and curb cuts, which 69.2% of online survey respondents wanted left unchanged. 
  
  
• A second public hearing tomorrow afternoon concerns a rezoning that would allow a mini-storage facility on an underused parking lot at 550 and 554 W T Hill Boulevard South. The application would shift the parcel from Highway Commercial to a Direct Control district that permits mini-storage while keeping the existing commercial businesses and their required 148 parking stalls in place. To limit the impact on the surrounding office park, the proposed rules would require buildings to be finished so they do not look like shipping containers, along with landscaping and fencing along the frontage used for storage. The City notified 33 nearby property owners within 60 meters of the site, and of the 3 residents who took part in the applicant's open house, 1 supported the plan while 2 worried that street-facing storage would not fit the area and could increase traffic or crime. 
  
  
• Council is set to give final sign-off to an extra $200,000 for enhancements at the Southern Alberta Art Gallery, lifting the approved capital budget from $7,514,000 to $7,714,000. The additional money comes from a Travel Alberta grant the gallery secured, and would be added to a project already backed by a $1-million federal facility grant and a $500,000 Canada Cultural Spaces grant. The Community Issues Committee voted 8-0 to recommend the change on July 7th, and the added funding would expand the project's scope to include entrance signage and lighting improvements along 3 Avenue South and a fully realized Listening Garden. Under the Municipal Government Act, Council must approve by resolution any spending beyond what the capital budget already authorizes. Detailed design is complete and construction is expected to run through to the fall of 2027.
  
  
• In other news, the Lethbridge Police Service says the city's overall crime rate fell 13% last year, even as its Crime Severity Index ticked up slightly. Statistics Canada's latest police-reported crime figures put Lethbridge's Crime Severity Index at 107.69 for 2025, up 1.87% from 105.71 in 2024 but still about 16% below the 2023 reading of 129.67. Police Chief Shahin Mehdizadeh attributes the higher index score to more offenders being identified and more charges laid, arguing it does not mean more crime occurred. Mayor Blaine Hyggen called the overall decline positive for the community while acknowledging there is still a lot of work to be done. Both the Chief and the Mayor point to the federal government's bail and sentencing reform law, which imposes tougher sentences on repeat offenders, as a factor they expect to help the trend continue.

🚨 This Week’s Action Item: 🚨

The Lethbridge Public Library is asking residents to help shape its 2027-2031 Plan of Service, the five-year roadmap that will set its goals and service priorities.

The survey is open until August 7th and can be completed online or in person at any library branch, and it is open to regular members, occasional visitors and non-users alike.

🪙 This Week’s Sponsor: 🪙

This week's sponsor is you! We don't have big corporate backers, so if you like what you're reading, please consider making a donation or signing up as a monthly member.

Having said that, if you are a local business and are interested in being a sponsor, send us an email and we'll talk!