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The city of Airdrie is relaunching the Downtown Incentives Program.
This keeps up the downtown revitalization trend, which, according to the city, saw 21 bids approved for a $1.52 million reinvestment in the city's centre.
Adena Malyk, the downtown revitalization coordinator for the City of Airdrie, explained that the bylaw for the revitalization was passed back in September of 2022, with the province of Alberta approving Airdrie for the Community Revitalization Levy (CRL) shortly after in December.
"Those two pieces provided the city with 110 action items to implement to revitalize Airdrie's downtown. That equates to 42 projects, 19 process optimizations, 25 reports or analyses, and 24 policy changes. Since that time, we have completed around 15 of the 110 action items, most of those being policy or regulatory changes that then help set the environment for revitalization to happen."
According to the City of Airdrie, the CRL brought in $441,000 in redirected tax revenue in 2024 and is projected to hit $509,000 in 2025. These funds are already supporting key projects:
- Environmental site assessments
- Nose Creek Corridor design
- Inspire project debt support
“These incentives create energy, momentum and show other businesses what’s possible,” said Malyk. “With renewed interest from business and property owners and strong attendance at events like the Main Street Music Festival and Ribfest, it’s clear the community is rallying around downtown.”
The city shared that the 2024 program brought visible improvements to storefronts, public spaces and pedestrian areas, while streamlining application approvals from the provincially mandated 40 days to just 10 business days.
Malyk also explained that the city has developed a Brownfield Development guide to help property owners unlock potential in underused sites.
"We are also designing some improvements to the Nose Creek corridor. We're hoping to implement over the next couple of years some really cool improvements, with more seating, more foliage, just making it more user-friendly and a better experience for our residents and visitors to the downtown."
One major concern currently with the downtown is parking. Malyk shared that the city is currently conducting a study, which will hopefully be shared later this year.
"We're just wrapping that up with the consultant, and then it takes some time for us to figure out what our next steps are with that."
She wanted to note that while it might not seem like things are happening, they are.
"We're about 13.5 per cent of reaching our goals in just two and a half years, which is pretty impressive. It typically takes about five to 20 years for meaningful change to shape. When we're talking about revitalization, it's a very complex process."
Early June will see the opening of applications for the downtown incentives.
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