CARSTAIRS - Town council has approved and adopted an updated planning process policies document for the municipality, a move the municipality's chief administrative officer says should be helpful to developers and other wishing to do business in town.
The approval came by way of motion at the recent, regularly-scheduled council meeting, held in person and on Zoom.
“It puts together a lot of the information and streamlines everything so that it is easier to read for developers and people who are applying,” Rick Blair told the Albertan following the Sept. 26 council meeting. “It really is a streamlining of the processes that are in place. It makes it easier to read and navigate through. We wanted to make it easier to follow.”
The planning process policies have been prepared to reflect provincial planning regulations and local bylaws as of September 2022.
The updated document outlines requirements in areas such as local planning frameworks, area structure plans and conceptual schemes, land use redesignations, and plans of subdivision.
The document now describes the purpose and intent of a conceptual scheme as a “non-statutory document intended to either provide information on future development cases where no area structure plan has been prepared and the requirement of an ASP have bee waived or there is further information required for lands within the plan area of an existing area structure plan.”
Similar to area structure plans, conceptual schemes are prepared in consultation with landowners, developers, municipal service providers, outside agencies such as school boards, and local interest groups.
The document outlines supporting studies required for an area structure plan or conceptual schemes. Required items for area structure plans include historical resource overview and if required an historical resource impact assessment, a geotechnical report including slope stability analysis if the slope is greater than 15 per cent, stormwater management plans, and water/wastewater services strategies.
Those same supporting studies are defined as discretionary for conceptual schemes.
Regarding plans of subdivision, the updated document states that an application for subdivision must be made by a landowner or agent acting on behalf of the landowner via one of two methods.
One method is tentative plan of subdivision which is prepared by a legal surveyor when creating two or more parcels that require a legal survey.
The other method is subdivision by instrument which occurs where additional parcels will be created and they can be described without a survey. Subdivisions by instrument is the form of subdivision often used for splitting lots for infill development.
The new planning process policies document also includes checklists and forms for various applications. The complete updated document can be found on the town’s website.
