PENHOLD – The town is preparing for future growth and wants its citizens to have a say.
Penhold is looking to update its Municipal Development Plan and is asking for public comments and feedback during an open house from 4 to 7:30 p.m. at the Penhold Regional Multiplex on Aug. 21.
The open house is taking place during Penhold Discovery Night, and town officials want to take advantage of the latter event.
“Penhold Discovery Night is a big night in Penhold so this is a good opportunity when we have a lot of people going through the multiplex that may have some thoughts on how they want to see the town grow,” said Mike Yargeau, Penhold mayor. “They have an opportunity to give that feedback.”
The current Municipal Development Plan was last updated in 2010 and the review is timely, noted Yargeau, adding that the municipality recently completed its 2019 census and had lands officially annexed from Red Deer County last year.
“We review all of our (plans) every so many years. We also have an active transportation plan that we review,” he said. “The annexation brought on a need to make sure we looked at this one sooner rather than later.”
Red Deer County and the Town of Penhold approved the annexation of almost 1,300 acres of land in the spring of 2017.
It was approved by the provincial Municipal Government Board in February 2018. The parcels of land to the east and northeast of the town almost doubled the size of Penhold.
Several town councillors and town staff are expected to be on hand to answer questions during the Aug. 21 open house, noted Yargeau, adding there may be several areas where Penhold residents want to provide feedback.
They include green spaces, commercial development, transportation and housing.
“They (citizens) want to have it (the town) designed properly,” said Yargeau. “It’s important that they (citizens) can have that input.”
Once all comments and feedback are collected and the review is complete, they will bring the revised Municipal Development Plan before council.
“Right now the Municipal Planning Commission is working on this (review), so after all the feedback is gathered it will go back to that commission,” said Yargeau. “When they are ready with the final document they will come back to council with it and we’ll review it.
“Once it’s finished it will be adopted by the town, by council and that will guide our planning staff and PCPS (Parkland Community Planning Services) with future decisions for the town,” Yargeau concluded.
A copy of the draft Municipal Development Plan is available on the town’s website, under the planning and development page.
Send comments and feedback by Aug. 29, to Kaitlyn Luster at 403-343-3394 or [email protected].
