Council moves forward with plans

CARSTAIRS - Council has passed first reading for bylaws to amend the land use bylaw for land north of Hugh Sutherland School (HSS) to accommodate land for future use for seniors' housing, an emergency tri-services building, and school expansion.

Before the bylaws were read, Pat Maloney of Dillon Consulting appeared as a delegation representing developer Mandalay Estates.

"The Mandalay Estates Area Structure Plan is the quarter section that used to be called Carlinton, where the campground is and the high school," said CAO Carl McDonnell. "They presented the area structure plan and council accepted it as information. Now it gets circulated for 90 days to all the various agencies. The developer will then have an open house. They're looking at October but we don't have a date yet where the public can come in and have input."

There were also subdivision applications from the developer for seniors' housing and a school site, he said.

Carstairs mayor Lance Colby said getting the land ready for future development is very important to the town.

"We need room for the new school," he said. "It'll be joining the land that's at the current high school (HSS). This makes it one campus so the buses aren't travelling around all over town. If we didn't secure that we'd have to find another location for the school, which might've meant a third bus route, which we don't need."

Colby said the proposed new school would also be able to use the existing HSS field and be close to the arena and other facilities.

"They can use more facilities right there," he said. "It's all there. We'll be able to change the bus route so the buses aren't loading near the highway. There'll be a loop for the parents to be able to park and pick up or drop off their kids. It'll be safer for the children attending that school."

The land use re-designation bylaws were for seniors' housing from R(residential) 1 and R3 to R4, emergency tri-services building from R3 to PFR (public facility and recreation), and expansion of HSS from R1, R2 and R3 to PFR, he said.

"One was for seniors' housing, where the future lodge would go," said McDonnell. "The other was for the school site expansion. It would be north of where the current school (HSS) is. The north boundary would expand with 10 acres going north."

McDonnell said that the town needs to get the subdivisions completed and the land use done in order for the school division (Chinook's Edge) to move forward with its application to Alberta Infrastructure for a new school.

"The senior housing area has to be subdivided off and land use done in order for Mountain View Seniors' Housing to apply to the province for the build to the seniors' lodge here," he said. "These are projects that could theoretically move forward in 2019 but a lot depends on the provincial budget. Once the area structure plan is approved, the developer will submit their drawings and we'll see if they're moving forward in 2019 with the servicing."

The emergency tri-services building would see fire, ambulance and police in one location, said McDonnell.

"We have a committee put together between the town and the county," he said. "They'll start looking at that in September or October when the committee meets again. We should be getting some cost estimates after that."

Colby said that having all the emergency crews in one location is a big advantage.

"They'll have easy access to Highway 2A and 581,"  said Colby. "Plus you have the seniors there. It'll help with quick access and room to expand the fire hall."

Colby added that the Mandalay Estates site is big enough for the town to put "our next reservoir on."

"We've got a secondary line coming in right now from Innisfail," he said. "It'll go from us down to Crossfield and give us a second access to water. We're stubbing it off by the campground. If we put the reservoir on the other side where we're planning we just need to tie into it. So we would have two reservoirs and two pump stations. We could reverse the flow if anything were to happen to the one pump or anything."