Cranbrook Mayor Lee Pratt said despite difficulties posed in 2021, the city stood up to the challenge.
Pratt said the City made significant strides in addressing the housing shortage in the community.
“Broadstreet Properties came in and built 292 units down on Innes Avenue. That was a remarkable project, they did that in 13 months,” said Pratt. “We approved another 20-unit affordable apartment complex which is not quite finished and there are another two six-storey apartment blocks which will be stated in the spring.”
More: Innes Avenue reconstruction to finish one year ahead of schedule (April 27, 2021)
More: Cranbrook Council gives third reading to apartment complexes (Oct. 27, 2021)
In 2021, Cranbrook saw high development investment in the community.
“We continue to do a lot of our own infrastructure work with the replacement of water and sewer lines and road work. On the development side, there were once again, really big numbers in building permits with just over $70-million,” said Pratt. “That’s pretty good, considering we were at $93-million last year.”
2021 also marked the launch of Cranbrook’s curbside recycling program.
“It was a slow start, but once it got going, it was very well accepted by the residents of Cranbrook. We saved a lot of products from going into the landfill and costing us money,” said Pratt. “What we did recycle, we ended up selling, so instead of costing us money, we make a little revenue out of it.”
More: Curbside recycling to officially begin Monday in Cranbrook (April 29, 2021)
Cranbrook was lucky in terms of natural disasters, while other parts of the province were more heavily impacted by fires and floods throughout the year.
“The Bill Nye fire was close by and that was a major concern, but we dodged that bullet,” explained Pratt. “We did a lot of wildfire mitigation surrounding the city, so we put ourselves a little more at ease with that.”
More: Bill Nye Mountain wildfire classified as ‘being held’ (Aug. 17, 2021)
More: Local mountain not named after the Bill Nye you’re thinking about (Aug. 27, 2021)
More: Wildfire mitigation on Cranbrook’s boundary treated more than 300 hectares of forested land (March 4, 2021)
Moving into 2022, some major projects that were started in 2021 will continue to completion.
“One of the big projects is that we’ll be continuing the sewer line we did out to the lagoons, down to Victoria Avenue. We have to do some major infrastructure work with storm, sewer and water,” said Pratt.
More: 2021 capital works projects wrapping up (Oct. 26, 2021)
“The year was challenging in many ways, with COVID and what’s been going on with the climate around here. But, once again, we stood up to it and I don’t think we came out of it really negatively. We’re looking forward to building off that positivity and keeping that up going forward,” concluded Pratt.