The Town of White City has initiated a process to incorporate White City, Emerald Park, commercial lands and nearby subdivisions into a single municipality.
White City has submitted a request for annexation of those subdivisions from the Rural Municipality of Edenwold.
There are around 6,000 people living in the area. The town says the current geographic and governance model is making it difficult for White City officials to plan for the future.
“Existing development in our community is completely seamless in terms of physical boundaries, emphasizing the complete lack of rationale for remaining subdivided into two separate municipal jurisdictions,” Mayor Bruce Evans said. “Becoming one urban municipality will provide the necessary governance structure to add the range of services that should be available in a rapidly growing urban community to better serve our residents and the broader region.”
Evans says the town has completed a Future Growth Study of the area, which showed the population will grow to more than 22,000 people over the next 25 years.
“The mandates and characteristics of governance are fundamentally different for urban and rural municipalities,” Evans added. “A unique opportunity exists to create a vibrant, united community capable of maintaining today’s lifestyle while also managing continued residential growth and commercial development for the long-term - if we act now.”
White City has launched a public information campaign to share the proposal with residents.
The formal process for creating the new urban municipality began with an official letter of request to the RM of Edenwold on Tuesday.
