Mountain View County rolled out its draft Municipal Development Plan to the public last week, drawing about 100 people at two open houses in the West Country.Still a work in progress, the draft plan garnered praise for its attempt to preserve the county's agricultural land base, but also raised concerns about lack of flexibility and key changes such as a proposed 10-year ownership requirement for subdivision applications beyond first parcel out.And at both Sundre and Cremona, the issue of density for growth centres outside the towns ñ in particular at Netook Crossing east of Olds ñ was a recurring theme, with the subject leading to a couple of fiery exchanges in Sundre.Opening the Cremona open house on Thursday, Reeve Bruce Beattie told about 45 people in attendance that the draft MDP was not a wholesale rewrite of the entire document, nor was it in its final form.The draft, he said, was based on the input from four roundtable sessions last winter, more than 1,600 mailed-in responses (a county record), and a telephone survey of 401 households, with a representative sampling from each division so that it was statistically valid.Questionnaires handed out at the current round of open houses and due Dec. 20 will help council further refine the draft plan.ìThere will be a final document we hope sometime in March 2012 and it will be a consensus document, which means the majority agrees and the minority accepts the results ñ and that's what we call democracy,î Beattie (Div. 4) said.Reviewing the highlights, deputy reeve Trish McKean noted an overwhelming majority of residents surveyed ñ 89 per cent ñ wanted the county to preserve agricultural land.With much of the land west of Highway 22 identified on a map in white for potential multi-lot development (two to four parcels), while most of the land east of 22 outside growth centres is shaded grey as an Agricultural Preservation Area, one speaker argued that the West Country is not only prime agricultural land but environmentally sensitive as well.ìMy question is, what is prime agricultural land?î he said.Beattie explained that the map was based on soil classification under the Canada Land Inventory.ìMy friends east of Highway 2 don't pick nearly as many rocks as I do,î Beattie said.ìYou gotta pick some criteria. We're saying this area is more appropriate for residential development.îMcKean (Div. 2) added that council would always have the discretion to refuse applications within the white area where there is established farm activity.ìIt's not just the map,î she said. ìThe map is just a starting point.îìI was surprised to arrive tonight,î resident Joyce Greenfield said, ìand see my land was in white and so eligible for multi-lot subdivisions.îWhile Greenfield asked what the process would be to stop multi-lot development in her area, another speaker asked how long the subdivision process takes and how much it costs.Olds resident Dennis Kennedy, who also owns land in the county, said the Canada Land Inventory was ìa very, very gross toolî to determine soil quality. And Kennedy argued that increasing the minimum lot size within growth centres from one-quarter acre to two acres was using up eight times as much farmland and therefore was not a sound approach to preserving it.ìDon't throw away densification,î Kennedy said. ìIt's worthy of discussion.îMcKean countered that the parcel size increase was offset by reducing the proposed maximum number of lots per quarter in growth centres from the current 240 with density bonusing to 48.David Doyle, who chairs the county's economic development and tourism advisory committee, said the flaw with that number was that a 48-lot subdivision was cost-prohibitive.ìEconomically it's not going to happen,î he said.And citing the Netook Crossing project, Doyle pointed out that Opus ñ now Prodev ñ sold commercial lots south of Highway 27 with the understanding there would be piped services extended from Olds.ìIf the county changes their mind,î Doyle said, ìwhat message does that send to any other developer, when this year it's one set of rules and three years ago it was another set of rules?îìIf I'm a developer or speculating,î Beattie responded, ìand I come in and speculate on something and I'm wrong, that's what speculation is all about.îHe added that the Highway 2/27 Area Structure Plan does not guarantee there would be piped sewer and water.Prodev representative Terry Johnston said he came from a farm background and respected a lot of the goals and objectives in the draft MDP ìand I hope you achieve them,î he said.However, county planning documents and agreements have ìcreated certain expectations for our company,î Johnston added.ìMy sincere hope is that as this process evolves we can come to an accommodation so that we can do what we wanna do and the county can do what they wanna do. We'd like to see our project successful,î he said.ìI'm here to request let's keep our minds open and let's look for solutions and not problems.îGreg Brown, a planning consultant for Neuroese Properties on the north side of Highway 27, agreed that development should pay for itself but asked county officials to ìgive some flexibility to the plan so that it's economically beneficial to the person doing it.îHis call for the new MDP to ìnot be so fixedî drew a smattering of applause from the Cremona audience.At the Sundre legion on Tuesday, with about 55 people in attendance, the reception to Neuroese representative Herb Styles had been decidedly more combative.At one point, Div. 1 Coun. Kevin Good accused Styles of calling a county resident ìignorantî the previous night during the Netook Crossing information session at the Olds Golf Course clubhouse.ìKevin, I didn't call him ignorant,î Styles replied, and when pressed Good later took it back.ìIf I said it, I retract it,î Good said.Rural Roots co-founder Royden Anderson also called Styles out.ìI think Herb should stand up and tell the people how many quarters he wants to develop and how many houses he wants to put out there,î Anderson said, adding that 1,500 people east of Olds would be half the size of Carstairs and three times the size of Cremona.Prodded by Div. 6 Coun. Paddy Munro to say how many acres were up for redesignation, Styles said about 600, with ìapproximately 680 lots if it all went through.î He added that the ASP was in place before his consortium bought the land. ìThis isn't something we imposed on the county.îMunro then asked: ìHow many people support this?î and one woman raised her hand.When another woman asked how adjacent landowners felt about the plan, Styles said: ìAt public hearings Ö I didn't hear anybody opposed. Some said, ëWhy can't you extend the area structure plan to us?' îBeattie ended the fireworks by standing up and pointing out that the purpose of the open house was to talk about the MDP ìfor the whole county not 2 and 27.îTwo nights later in Cremona, resident and Municipal Planning Commission member Greg Harris echoed a warning issued by Good in Sundre and by other people attending Thursday's open house ñ that farmers will lose their political voice if they become the minority.If that happens, Harris told the crowd, ìpeople with one, two, three-acre lots will be sitting in your chairs deciding on a new MDP.î
