Residents are being encouraged to provide input into changes being proposed to the Mountain View County (MVC) land use bylaw, says Reeve Bruce Beattie.
Recommended by administration, the changes deal with more than a dozen topics, including business contractors, cannabis production facilities, environmentally significant areas, sour gas facilities, asphalt plants, kennels and aerodromes-airports.
A number of open houses have already been held regarding the proposed changes. The public hearing on the matter is scheduled for July 11 in council chambers.
“This is more or less a review of the bylaw and some of the issues that have come up in the last year or so,” said Beattie. “We’ve had some public input already through the public consultation process, through the open houses. When we were looking at environmentally significant areas, we had a number of letters that were sent and looked at.”
The bylaw review update is being undertaken to provide clarification and clear interpretation on uses within the legislation, he said, noting it is also related to discussions with area municipalities.
“We are going to be going through all of our agreements for the intermunicipal development plans (IDPs) with the different towns.”
Some of the recommended changes to the MVC land use bylaw scheduled to be considered at the July public hearing including the following:
- Sour gas facilities – Amend the county’s modified definition of "public facility" to match the Alberta Energy Regulators' (AER) definition and add criteria to assist applicants an the approving authority with the interpretation of the AER’s decisions, and to correct the land use bylaw’s definition of "unrestricted country development" to match the AER’s definition.
- Portable batch plant or asphalt plant – Amend the definition of portable batch to exclude wet scrubber plants to be consistent with operating regulations that apply to certain gravel plants within the county. The amendment would not permit an operator to use wet scrubber plants as a form of portable batch plant within the county.
- Secondary detached dwelling – An applicant is currently required to meet the majority of the four criteria when applying for a secondary detached dwelling on a property greater than 70 acres. The proposed amendment is to combine two criteria into one and require the applicant to meet two of the three criteria.
- Aerodrome and airport – An aerodrome is currently listed discretionary use with the agricultural districts and a permitted use in the airport district of the land use bylaw and requires the issuance of a development permit. The use definition of airport is recommended to be removed from the land use bylaw and the airport protection zone to be renamed aerodrome protection zone.
- Shipping containers – Allow for shipping containers (sea cans) to be applied for in parks and recreation district as a permitted use requiring a development permit and within the Parks Conservation and Recreation District on common property as a discretionary use requiring a development permit.
Written submissions received on or before the comment deadline of noon on July 9 will be distributed to council in advance of the hearing, while submissions received after the deadline will be copied and presented to council at the hearing, with council having the discretion to consider them.
