Mountain View County council last week gave the green light for a pair of three-lot subdivisions that will face each other across Twp. Rd. 304 just west of Highway 2A, about half a mile north of Carstairs in Div. 1."With this being so close to the Town of Carstairs, this is where this type of development can fit," Div. 7 Coun. Al Kemmere said at Wednesday's council meeting prior to the vote on the first application, rezoning six acres on the south side of the township road to CR-1 for the creation of three two-acre parcels."I can support this application," Kemmere said.The applications were made prior to council's decision in November to suspend low-density multi-lot provisions in the municipal development plan pending a review of the MDP.Div. 1 Coun. Kevin Good, who had led the push to ban multi-lots off the county collector network until the MDP review is completed, also voted in favour of the first application."This is a difficult decision for me," Good said. "I don't think anyone has to guess my personal opinion on how these fit in the county."However, Good called the application "very unique due to its proximity to Carstairs" and also noted it was within the town's designated growth centre and was not on arable farmland."As Coun. Kemmere said, if there is a spot for one, this could be it.""I support this application," Reeve Paddy Munro said. "I would prefer it if the acreages would be a little bigger but it's (following) the rules of the day and it's within a growth centre."The bylaw was given unanimous third and final reading.The second application ñ for six acres to accommodate another strip of two-acre CR-1 parcels in the southwest corner of SE 29-30-1-5 ñ was also approved, but with Good voting this time in opposition."This falls just outside the proposed growth centre," Good said prior to the vote. "Putting six houses together is I believe a potential problem. The cropland is an issue on this one, whereas it really isn't with the other one."Although unable to vote because they were in Edmonton on county business, councillors Duncan Milne (Div. 3) and Bruce Beattie (Div. 4) indicated by e-mail they were opposed to both applications as they were taking "good farmland" out of production."We've got to make a stand on farmland if we want to preserve it," Milne wrote in a message read at the meeting by planning and development director Diana Hawryluk.Resident Dwayne Fulton was the only member of the public to speak in opposition to the bylaws, saying there were already a number of clusters approved in the area that were not selling.As well as having concerns about the environmental impact of allowing six residences within a stone's throw of each other, Fulton also warned that the county would face difficulties with the road for school buses and regular traffic.Landowner Curtis Clark told council that he applied for the rezonings under the options available to him at the time in order to raise money to keep his farm viable.Although he voted in favour of both applications, Munro said as much as he sympathized with Clark's predicament, "I don't think it's our job to understand financial situations; our job is to understand land use."In a separate public hearing, council voted unanimously to refuse an application to rezone 8.4 acres within SE 23-31-27-4 in the Lonepine area for the creation of four country-residential parcels, citing the land's proximity to county gravel pits.
