A second open house for the updated Mountain View County Bergen area structure plan (ASP) was held at the Bergen Community Hall on Oct. 23, with 50 residents, county councillors and staff attending.
A multi-stakeholder steering committee is overseeing the updating of the plan, which will be used as a guideline for council in considering future developments and other land use.
The plan is being updated to bring it into line with the county's municipal development plan.
Steering committee chairman Phillip Hambrook says the process is moving along nicely and receiving lots of public input.
“We are getting close,” said Hambrook. “We will take the comments we receive tonight and review those. After that we will make an update draft available to the community. I'm happy with the plan so far and I think the community has gotten what they've asked for.”
The updated Bergen ASP's objectives include to “align its policies with the current municipal development plan, deliver the ASP structure plan on budget and on schedule, confirm and validate information collected during the planning process, and create an actionable, measurable and achievable plan.”
The plan area encompasses approximately 171 acres or 66 square miles south of Sundre. Once adopted by county council, the plan would replace the existing 2008 plan.
Land use and development objectives of the new plan include to “conserve agricultural land and support agricultural development”, “provide a complementary approach to land use planning within the plan area”, and to “identify commercial and industrial activities that support the surrounding land uses.”
The current draft's sensitive features and environmental protection section reads, in part: “Mountain View County desires to conserve lands that are environmentally sensitive and contribute significantly to the amenity values of the plan area. Other features may be environmentally significant as they may pose to be hazardous for development and public safety.”
Residents who attended the Oct. 23 open house were asked to provide written comments on the proposed plan. Those comments will be reviewed during an upcoming steering committee meeting.
The current draft is available for public viewing on the county's website under the planning and development services section.
The committee will decide what changes, if any, will need to be made to the proposed plan in light of those comments.
Administration could then prepare a final draft, which would be forwarded to county council for possible first reading.
Once first reading is given, a public hearing would be held to consider the plan.
Forty people attended an open house for the plan at the Bergen Community Hall on June 9.
