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Neighbourhood Renewal
in edmonton
Helping cities grow responsibly is what
engineering, landscape architecture and
geomatics firm Al-Terra has done since 1976.
“We do all the infrastructure,” says Al-
Terra's Manager, Urban Design and Renewal,
Cy Balitbit, “including drainage, flood
mitigation, low impact development, and
what we call sustainable mobility.”
When the firm is assigned a project as
part of Edmonton’s Neighbourhood Renewal
Program, for example, the City identifies
issues in mature neighborhoods like Garneau
and Strathcona, and asks Al-Terra to explore
design directions for infrastructure, including
utility
sidewalks, trees and drainage.
The firm also takes its lead from companies which flag any areas that, based on
their models, are in high-risk flood zones. But
before any costly “infrastructure replacement”
conversations happen, Balitbit’s team looks at
low-impact development (LID) solutions.
“Instead of all the stormwater going
straight to the major system, we detain
it for a little bit on the surface level.”
Water detainment comes in the form of
neighbourhood stormwater ponds, gardens,
basins, planters absorbent landscaping
and soil cells (crate-like structures around
sidewalk trees) that all connect to the
drainage system, along with self-contained
LID solutions that absorb, hold and distribute
the water sent its way.
“So it's kind of performing in two ways:
One is with the water being detained, and
then there's an opportunity for trees to
attain better growth along city streets and
to improve the quality of life of people with
green infrastructure.”
Rural Infrastructure
In 2024, Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA)
released its Rural Municipal Infrastructure
Deficit Project. It’s a series of four reports
which outline the gap between the ideal
and actual current state of rural municipal
infrastructure, and show the massive
importance of provincial investment.
“We've been holding the line on taking care
of our bridges and roads for a very long time,
and now we're starting to slip backwards,”
says Ponoka County Reeve Paul McLauchlin.
He was RMA president when the reports were
released, and says the reports show that “if
we had better asset management and actually
invest at the front end, we can get a seven-
16 ALBERTA INNOVATORS