The steering committee overseeing the updating of the Mountain View County Eagle Valley area structure plan (ASP) has come up with two draft vision statements for the revised plan, the policies and priorities committee heard at its recent regularly scheduled meeting.
Coun. Angela Aalbers, who is one of the county's representatives on the committee, gave a report to the committee.
"The ASP committee has come up with two visions," said Aalbers, whose Division 5 includes Eagle Valley northeast of Sundre. "There's one thought of no development, and there's one of sustainable development that suits the landscape. Those are two visions that are going to be put out to the community to see which one is more preferred.
"It's kind of difficult to do anything else with that ASP committee really until the vision is set, because of course that is going to determine land use and what's going to be proposed from the committee."
Formed in August 2016, the multi-stakeholder steering committee - made up of three Mountain View County councillors, three public members and one member from the Eagle Hill/Westward Ho community association - is conducting the review of the plan, which was originally adopted in 1997.
The plan is used by Mountain View County as a guide when it comes to land use and other development.
The plan area is bordered on the south by Twp. Rd. 334, on the north by the Red Deer County boundary, on the east by Rge. Rd. 43, and in the west by Rge. Rd. 52 on the south and Rge. Rd. 42 on the north.
The review is being conducted to bring the existing plan into alignment with the municipal development plan and land use regulations.
The two draft vision statements are as follows:
ï To have diversified, moderate and sustainable growth while maintaining a rich agricultural presence and history, while also respecting environmentally significant areas.
ï To protect and sustain the rural quality of life, the historical community sites, environmentally significant areas and the agricultural land within the Eagle Valley area structure plan boundaries. Agriculture will remain as the primary land use.
"Please keep in mind that these two visions are a starting point to initiate discussion with the community and are subject to change as input is provided," said Geneva Chaudhary, the planner-project manager for Mountain View County's Eagle Valley Area Structure Plan Review.
"They are draft visions and they will be available for the public to comment on at the February 27 open house."
The Eagle Valley Community Association Working Group was formed in August to give residents an additional voice in the ASP review process.
To date the group has been very helpful to the committee, said Aalbers.
"The working group provided the ASP committee what I think is a really good survey that they put out," said Aalbers.
"I think the uptake on the survey was something like 90 per cent or so. It is really valuable information and I think that working group is doing really good work.
"The community is very involved in this one and they are very outspoken."
The working group recently made a presentation to the ASP committee, outlining six components members say define quality of life in the ASP area: pride of ownership, sense of values, environmental harmony, stewardship of resources, property and personal security, and legislative and management framework.
The first open house for the updated ASP will be held at the Eagle Hill Community Centre on Feb. 27 starting at 6:30 p.m.
"The community is very involved in this one and they are very outspoken."Angela AalbersMountain View County councillor
