Town council has taken the first step towards re-designating 32 and a half acres of private land in the southern edge of Innisfail to allow for the development of a 12,500-square-foot facility that will house new indoor recreational facilities.
At council's regular meeting on Dec. 9, Craig Teal, director of planning and operational services, said the owner of the land, operating under the name of Discovery Institute of Nature and located at 6500 Cottonwood Rd., has submitted a building plan for the project. However, the town has not yet received a cost estimate for the project.
Teal said for the proposed project to proceed, the applicant requires amendments to the town's Municipal Development Plan (MDP), Woodlands Area Structure Plan (WASP) and Land Use Bylaw (LUB) to process a development permit that has already been received by the town.
“We do process them concurrently but when we make the decisions we have to make sure the policy decisions are made first before the implementation decision on the development permit can be made,” said Teal. “Before Municipal Planning Commission (MPC), which would deal with the development permit, can do their job, council must take care of their decisions dealing with the Land Use Bylaw and the policy plans.”
Teal said council has been requested to change the land use for the MDP from residential to open space/municipal reserve/environmental reserve. He said the land use for the WASP needs to be changed from residential and live-work to a new category called private recreation while the property's designation under the LUB needs to be amended from “reserved for future development” to public use (P). He said the P district lists several private and public recreation uses, with golf courses being a permitted use and commercial recreation and entertainment being discretionary uses.
The land in question has proposed recreational trails and Buffalo Creek cuts through the northern portion of the property. Teal said the proposed development is not being planned for any environmentally sensitive areas on the property but the issue is one the town could look at in the future, depending on future plans for the site.
“There are portions of the parcel at the time of subdivision that we would look at, if there is a subdivision, as environmental reserve designation,” said Teal. “Usually that includes land within six metres of the creek and it depends on the layout of the topography as well as to how much would be in environmental reserves, so the meandering flood plain can also be considered as part of the environmental reserve.”
Council gave first reading to the proposed changes. A public hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 27. If and when council completes third and final readings, MPC can then formally deal with the landowner's development permit.
