The compliments thrown at the Town of Athabasca by the developers of the Landing Park project are well deserved.
It’s no secret that in past years, many developers and entrepreneurs didn’t have much good to say about their dealings with the town. Landing Park is a substantial project, and to have the developers speak about the town’s involvement in such glowing terms is a positive sign that a new attitude has been adopted.
As CAO Josh Pyrcz notes, it’s not that town needs to do cartwheels for every proposal they see, but where it makes sense, they need to be helpful, efficient and — for lack of a better term — stay the heck out of the way.
As we move forward, we hope that the town’s apparent new pro-development attitude is matched by a new sense of assertiveness. Landing Park is coming together nicely, but it started with the developer. It’d be nothing short of a revelation if the story of the next major project started with the town making the first move.
Baby steps, though. For once in a long while, a developer has identified Athabasca for getting it right.
We’ll call that a win.
