Mountain View County (MVC) council has received year-end reports from commissions and boards. The reports were received for information at the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
The MVC municipal planning commission reviews discretionary development and subdivision applications on behalf of the county. It is made up of county councillors and members of the public at large.
In the commission's 2016 report, chairperson Kim Walton said the commission members took part in several recent related activities.
“This past year we have participated in information sessions where we have reviewed the legal aspects of the work that the commission conducts, the municipal government act (currently under review and upgrade), and aggregate extraction, processing and redesignation,” said Walton.
Commission members and members of the subdivision and development appeal board attended a training day workshop last November.
“The presentation helped the members to understand the nuances of the legal-ethical aspect of the work these committees conduct,” she said. The committee has also made a number of suggestions.
“As a committee we have suggested to planning that we discuss collecting summaries of statistics on the number of contrary approvals between planning recommendations and commission decisions,” she said.
“We have been invited to comment on changes to the land use bylaw based on our observations and these inconsistencies.”
A committee member has recently suggested that the county investigate the establishment of voluntary “community planning committees in areas that have an area structure plan.”
“Because notice of application is sent to any adjacent landowners, neighbours that live outside of notification areas do not have the same opportunity to learn of the proposal.
“The committee could review the application and provide input as the impact to the community as a whole where there may be no objection from adjacent landowners.
“We have had approval of subdivisions that are not supported by an area structure plan as there was little objection by adjacent landowners, yet the community as a whole in developing the area structure plan expressed what they would or would not support.”
The MVC subdivision and development appeal board convened six hearings over the past year.
“Of the six appeals, the most contentious was likely the issuing of a new development permit for Forest Heights Golf & Country Club to include 100 RV sites,” said chairman Ernie Israelson.
“This appeal was in session for over five and a half hours. With the board sitting in an all-day session like this it is advisable to reconvene the hearing to a later date before a final decision is made to ensure all the information presented has been adequately reviewed and absorbed.”
The Strings & Keys Music Education Fund Committee awarded $4,400 to six young musicians to support their further education.
“This is in excess of the $3,000 guideline approved by council when the fund was inaugurated, but since that time, the fund has received further donations from projects organized by the Strings & Keys Society, and so the committee felt comfortable increasing the amount of our disbursement accordingly,” said report author and committee member Jamie Syer.
The fund currently stands at $27,000, he said.
“We have all felt that the committee has worked extremely well under its current membership, and we look forward to the continuation of this important scholarship opportunity for young people in the coming years,” he said.
Syer, who is the Sundre Municipal Library manager, also presented the library's year-end report.
The library's print collection now has 21,402 items, and the non-print collection has 3,622 items. Total items circulated last year was 41,804, an increase of 10 per cent over 2014.
The library remains active in a number of areas, including hosting workshops, and providing access to Internet and other technologies, he said.
