The university’s agricultural lands could become a bustling campus neighbourhood within decades. The university has agreed to lease the land to developers as part of the city’s infill strategy.

The University of Saskatchewan has moved forward with the development of more than half of its land inside the city, creating a multi-million-dollar revenue source.

Nearly 1,000 of the university’s total 1,865 acres within Saskatoon city limits will be leased to developers for commercial and residential areas in the coming decades.

The development of the land is expected to generate millions of dollars towards the university’s operating costs, much like leasing the land at Preston Crossing brings in three to four million dollars a year in revenue towards student bursaries and scholarships.

Greg Fowler, acting vice-president of finance and resources at the university, said the university and the city are still in the preliminary stages of planning.

The city plans to simply rezone the land, while developers will sign lease agreements with the university.

“We’re in discussions with the city right now and it is very, very preliminary,” Fowler said. “We want these [developments] to be very sustainable and we want to realise the economic value of them.”

Some of the land to be leased is currently being used by the College of Agriculture and Bioresources for crop and plant research. But Fowler said that the college will not have to relocate for over a decade, leaving plenty of time to find new land outside the city.

Alan Wallace, manager of planning and management for the city, said the development will have a high-density population, which will make for less roads and leave the city with minimal responsibilities within the area.

“This is why smart growth and new urbanism is fairly important to the city,” Wallace said.

“We have to see how it’s going to work in the marketplace because a lot of people want to own their own land.”

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Photo: Raisa Pezderic/The Sheaf