The Mountain View County policies and priorities committee has received annual reports from a number of county committees and boards. The move came by way of motion at the committee’s recent regularly scheduled meeting.
Reports were received from the Agricultural Service Board, the Cremona & District Recreational Board, the Eagle Valley area structure plan committee, the municipal planning commission, and the subdivision and development appeal board.
In his report, Brian Rodger, the chairman of the Agricultural Service Board, outlined activities the board has been involved in over the past year:
“It is always a pleasure to work with the county representatives on all levels to strengthen the relationship between ratepayers, urban centres and agricultural businesses within the area,” said Rodger. “With funding approval and support of council we are able to deliver these programs.”
In his report, James Smith, the chairman of the Eagle Valley area structure plan (ASP) steering committee, said the draft plan is now completed.
“For the benefit of those council members not on the steering committee, our group is made up of independent thinkers that are business people and represent some very different views on what they foresee the landowners within the boundaries of the plan wanting for their community in the future,” said Smith.
“I mention this to help you appreciate how difficult and often slow it is to allow people to be heard and then to attempt to come to a consensus on the many issues we have covered in this review.”
The draft plan is expected to be presented at an open house early in the new year, he said.
“We feel as a committee we have a polished draft document to bring back to the public at our second open house that is reflective of their wishes,” he said. “We are looking forward to getting their feedback to help us make the necessary changes, as we complete this area structure plan review.”
In her report, Kim Walton, chair of the municipal planning commission, outlined a number of challenges she says the policies and priorities committee should consider, including the following (quoted from report):
- All agricultural land should be considered agricultural first and assessed with less consideration of the ability to grow wheat. Viable agricultural land seems to have become more likely to be subdivided into very large residential lots within the currently described “Multi-Lot” areas.
- Members have felt that the current policies around development within ESAs (environmentally significant areas) are not adequate. We feel that there should be a review of the conditions applied to ESAs that include a method of accountability by the applicant.
- The planning departments have done an excellent job of helping applicants in understanding the rules around rezoning and development. We have noticed that year after year applicants understand the reasons behind the conditions that are applied to their applications. We think that the next challenge is to work with communities to help residents to understand how the planning process works. We understand that this will always be an ongoing challenge. We have noticed that community members have been especially confused by the seeming lack of reference to ASPs in decision making.
In her report, Alana Gibson, chair of the subdivision and development appeal board, said members conducted 11 hearings in 2017-18.
The complete reports are available on the county’s website.
