CARSTAIRS - At its regular council meeting on Nov. 13, Carstairs council made an amendment to the definition of mixed use development under the land use bylaw.
Town CAO Carl McDonnell said administration recently noticed while reviewing the land use bylaw that the town didn't have provisions for hotels or motels under C-1A (commercial).
"We put those under mixed use because typically in mixed use you might have commercial below and living quarters above," said McDonnell. "There will still be a discretionary use, which means it still has to go to council. If we were to get a new motel or hotel it would most likely be along the highway so it makes sense to have it now."
McDonnell said there are no applications currently for any new motels or hotels but the town wants to be prepared if and when that should happen.
In other council news, council approved adjustments regarding the intermunicipal subdivision and development appeal board (ISDAB) and appointment of the members from Carstairs.
"We have members who are appointed to our subdivision appeal board (Sheldon Ball and Sandi Roberts), because our intermunicipal one involves Mountain View County we wanted to make sure they were comfortable with the members we have," he said.
"That's an adjustment on our organization minutes that those individuals (Ball and Roberts) be appointed to the ISDAB."
Council looked at dissolving the fire advisory committee and putting it under the inter-community collaboration committee (ICC) as per a request from Mountain View County, said McDonnell.
"We had a meeting with the county and had the discussion," he said. "That's the way it's moving forward. It was brought back to council that we won't be appointing anyone to the fire advisory committee and we'll be bringing back a motion to dissolve that committee and have the responsibilities fall as a sub agreement of the ICC."
Council heard from a delegation of Darrah Selanders and Jennifer Benner of the Carstairs and District Chamber of Commerce, who outlined the group's five-year plan and 2019 budget.
"What we do is the business licensing money we collect -- we give that back to the chamber every year," he said. "That's why they present us with a five-year plan to show us what they're going to do with those funds."
