from "Discover Sylvan Lake 2003"
When it comes to boom towns, Sylvan Lake is the real thing.
Sylvan Lake is growing faster than any other small town of its size in Canada, except Cochrane, Alberta. Census data indicates population growth here has accelerated steadily since 1981 when Sylvan Lake had 3,779 residents.
Today it has more than 8,300 residents.
Construction activity here shows a corresponding acceleration. Development officer Al Gamble says the pace of construction has quadrupled over the past 10 years and Sylvan Lake reached a record level last year.
The Town of Sylvan Lake issued 287 building permits in 2002 with an estimated construction value of $41.7 million. This tops the previous high water mark of $39,003,400 set in 2001.
Home builders received permits last year for 198 single family dwellings, which Gamble says is a remarkable number for a town of this size. The City of Lethbridge, with nine times the population, issued just three times as many home permits as the Town of Sylvan Lake.
The housing boom isn't new in Sylvan. The estimated construction value of the new homes hovered just under $10 million for the first half of the 90s, jumped close to $15 million in 1997, topped $20 million in the next year and has stayed above that mark ever since.
Although commercial and industrial development hasn't kept pace with residential construction, that's beginning to change.
A survey by Nichols Applied Management in 1999 showed the non-residential assessment base in Sylvan Lake was only 14.5 per cent of the town's total assessment base.
That number has since increased to 16.5 per cent.
Local real estate agent Jim Jardine, who sat on council 20 years ago, foresees a bright future for the commercial sector in Sylvan Lake.
"In the 80s the economy was in tatters and no developers wanted to come here," he told The News during Small Business Week. "At that time, most of the residents in Sylvan Lake worked in Red Deer and shopped in Red Deer."
Jardine says town councils recognized the problem and worked hard to lay the groundwork for change.
"They knew what we needed -- to provide the infrastructure and develop the industrial land. Now it's got to the critical point where growth is self-generating."
Visitors driving into Sylvan Lake along Highway 20 can see proof of the industrial and commercial growth here. Hewlett Park Landing at the intersection of 47th Avenue is virtually brand new and steadily growing in the variety of goods and services it offers.
Farther along Highway 20 you can see the new Beju Industrial Park and closer to the intersection with Highway 11A there's an industrial area to the right and one to the left, all of them comparatively new.
Downtown remains vibrant and plans are in the works to spruce up the Main Street commercial sector, create a waterfront park at the jetty and build a beachfront promenade for pedestrians and cyclists.
Town Councilor Ted Iverson says planners have taken a "pedestrian friendly" approach to improving downtown Sylvan.
"I think it's an awesome concept," he recently told The News. "People are really the focus, not vehicles. That's what I see here. ... It makes Sylvan Lake more like Kelowna, Penticton, where they have some really good people areas downtown."
Iverson also believes two major tourism projects in the downtown area, Chateau Suites and the Sylvan Lake Resort and Conference Centre, portend the future for Sylvan Lake.
"We're going from a summer resort to a year-round destination," he says.