EDMONTON -- A small business owner is questioning the fire protection available to residents and businesses in Edmonton’s Westmount neighbourhood.
“Is our neighbourhood safe right now or is it not? If it’s safe, let me build. If it’s not, the city should put in a fire hydrant,” said Alexander Archbold, owner of Curiosity Inc.
The building has had many uses over the years including an ice-cream shop which Archbold hoped to bring back to the neighbourhood.
It would be part of an 800 square foot garage he wants to build on the property.
“Something like an ice-cream parlour or seating area where people from the neighbourhood could come and really, just come visit on a nice sunny day and enjoy the space,” he said.
During the permit process Archbold said he was asked to make a few changes to his plans.
“They asked us to add extra trees and shrubs to the plan, we did. They asked us to add backdoors to the blueprints, then the final thing that kind of threw us was they asked for a fire hydrant upgrade on the street,” he said.
Archbold would later find out that fire hydrant would cost him $750,000.
“The reason why they said it’s so high is that they don’t have the current infrastructure on 127 Street to properly extinguish a fire mid-block,” said Archbold.
He was given a second option to install a private hydrant which could set him back around $80,000.
“It means that EPCOR will not service or pay for any challenges with that water main that will now be under my building so I may not even be able to insure that space,” Archbold said.
And he said it could only be used to protect his business, not any of his neighbours.
“It doesn’t feel right,” he said. “The city should put in a fire hydrant and not put that expense on an independent business owner like myself,” he added.
“He’s right,” said Ward 6 Councillor Scott McKeen.
“If we’re going to put that on the applicant then they’re not going to do the improvement.”
McKeen said the bylaw was designed with new subdivisions in mind.
“Those rules and regulations are probably way over built for protection so I don’t want anybody to think that they don’t have good, great fire service right now, they do.”
McKeen said the city needs to find a way to spread the costs in an equitable way for infill projects like this, adding he wants to see business owners like Archbold succeed.
“These things can be extremely challenging to work through but if he contacts my office we will raise this issue with council,” McKeen said.
In the meantime, Archbold’s vision for a community hub is on hold.
“The hardest part about this whole thing is that I had this vision of kids and families coming and enjoying and sitting on a patio and I really love the idea of giving memories back to the community,” said Archibold.
