The steering committee overseeing the development of the new Highway 2-27 area structure plan (ASP) will likely be presented with a first draft of the document at its Oct. 16 meeting, says director of planning John Rustling.
At the steering committee's Aug. 26 meeting, members reviewed policy and gave directions to staff preparing the plan, he said.
“What we did at the last meeting is we did policy sections for some of the key topic areas such as residential and business development and got the members talking about that,” said Rusling. “So now we can go away and write the plan. Between now and then (Oct. 16) we are going to write the draft plan.”
The plan will not come before council before the October municipal election, he said.
“These plans take time and you have to give people time to read and react,” he said. “It would still be alive (following the election). If there were new faces on the committee, they could retrace a few steps.”
The ASP sets out various designations for the plan area, including agriculture, business, residential, cultural and tourism, highway commercial, local commercial and recreation.
The plan is being developed to replace the existing ASP, which was adopted by council in 2007. It must comply with the countywide municipal development plan (MDP), which was adopted last year.
The current ASP area stretches from the eastern boundary of the Town of Olds to one mile east of the intersection of highways 2 and 27; north to south it takes in most of the land between Twp. Rd. 332 on the north and Twp. Rd. 324 on the south.
Objectives outlined in the terms of reference for the new plan include “to achieve the orderly, economical and beneficial development, use of land and patterns of human settlement”, “without infringing on the rights of individuals for any public interest except to the extent that is necessary for the overall greater public interest.”
The objectives of the terms of reference include to “incorporating modern ‘best practice' land use and development standards, prepared regulation and requirements for the efficient management of land use and future development.”
The steering committee has identified 10 principal goals of the plan, including to “develop a land use plan that will integrate complementary land uses with existing and future transportation, servicing and other infrastructure”, “encourage successful implementation of the plan that results in on-the-ground orderly development” and “encourage new development that respects existing residents and development and benefits all county and town residents through employment, business and retail opportunities.”
A public hearing or hearings will be part of the ASP development process.
The Highway 2-27 ASP is one of three such plans currently being developed by the county, the other two being for southeast of Sundre and for Water Valley/Winchell Lake.
