Steinbach City Council working to facilitate growth in the industrial park

Steinbach City Council made a number of moves on Tuesday to facilitate more development in the industrial park.  

Council was presented with a rezoning bylaw Tuesday evening that was brought forward by City Manager Troy Warkentin. 

“This application is being made by the City of Steinbach on behalf of the registered owner being the Steinbach Community Development Corporation Inc.” Warkentin adds “The application seeks to create four lots of 1.5 acres each along Acres Drive to facilitate the further sale and development of industrial land within the city.” 

Councillor Damian Penner spoke in favour of the bylaw noting “these are a very desirable size at 1.5 acres as we have seen 1.5 and 2 acre lots in the industrial park go very quickly. It is a case of supply and demand, our supply is low and our demand is high so let's try to balance that out.” 

Mayor Earl Funk says this is all part of the plan that was put into motion years ago. 

“We've built Acres Drive this year and now we are subdividing lots along there.” He adds “we see lots of residential housing come up but when the industrial growth is happening at the same time, that is very healthy for our community.” 

Council voted unanimously to give the rezoning bylaw first reading. 

On a similar note, council held a public hearing on Tuesday for a bylaw that would close a public road allowance dubbed Industrial Road West and rename it to Campbell Drive. 

The road will run from the new portion of Acres Drive to Park Road, parallel to Industrial Road. It will open up more land for industrial development. 

With no opposition during the public hearing, Michael Zwaagstra moved to give the bylaw second reading.  

“The reason for renaming Industrial Road West is because the roadway is nearly identical in name to a road that is already in the area and so it will be renamed to Campbell Road which is named after John Campbell who is an original homesteader of that particular area. It certainly seems like an appropriate name change.” 

Council gave the bylaw both second and third reading which means it is officially approved. 

Finally, city council cancelled $3.1M of borrowing capacity that was authorized for the construction of Acres Drive from Industrial to Keating. Warkentin says there were sufficient funds on hand so the city did not require any new debt to be created for this project.