Annexation bid gets thumbs down at Leduc County meeting

Emotions ran high at a public meeting last night about the City of Edmonton's a plan to annex land south of the city in Leduc County.

• Edmonton looks to annex part of Leduc County
• Booming Beaumont looks to expand borders

More than half of all the city's growth over the past 30 years has been south of Whitemud Drive and with planners predicting the city's population doubling in the next three decades, the city is running out of room.

But Leduc County residents like Alan Roth say they're not interested in becoming Edmonton citizens.

"It's 24 hours after a snowstorm," Roth told CBC News after the hearing at the RedTail Landing Golf Club near the Edmonton International Airport. "Our roads are already plowed. If we have the city taking care of our roads we won't get that kind of service.

"If i want a meeting with the mayor of the county of Leduc, I can just pick up the phone and see him. It's not a problem. We're not going to have those services when the city takes over."

Clarence Shields argued that annexing the segment of Leduc County north of the Edmonton International Airport will completely limit growth of the Nisku Industrial Park.

More meetings are planned before the Alberta's Municipal Government Board finally decides what will happen.