The City of Red Deer and Red Deer County agreed to update the Intermunicipal Development Plan directly following a public hearing at the Sheraton on Sept. 10.The amendments accommodate land annexation by the city within a growth area providing for expansion decades into the future and no longer stipulate a July 2017 expiry date.Both councils approved the amendments unanimously.“It keeps the plan current,” said City of Red Deer major projects planner Angus Schaffenburg. “It helps to set out the parameters of the relationship between Red Deer County and the City of Red Deer.”The amendments allow for the city to annex on an at needs basis without a time crunch in place, he said.As Red Deer grows and needs to gobble up more land from the surrounding county, the city will maintain a supply of available land to cover between 30 and 50 years of growth based on a population formula, said county planner Calvin Symington.“As far as we're concerned it makes more sense to take land as required,” Symington said. “With these amendments at least there isn't a deadline looming for the city.”A total of 18 members of the public were on hand for the public hearing, he said.Three individuals spoke at the public hearing on behalf of affected residents.“From a planning perspective it's the right thing to do,” Gayle A. Langford, a lawyer with Langford Law Office, who spoke during the public hearing on behalf of three clients and as a Red Deer County landowner, said in an interview. “If you're going to have a growth formula plan based on population you need to do the planning.”One of her clients owns a piece of land which is not suited to any other type of use besides residential development, but under the act such land must be kept for agricultural uses, she said.“It's frozen in agricultural use,” Langford said. “There is no mechanism to rezone it.”She says she wishes the IDP specified future uses within the document, similar to the Innisfail-Red Deer County plan.Because of Red Deer's uncertain infrastructure needs that far into the future and the size of the plan area, delving into specific land uses isn't easy, Symington said.“On our side it's nice to know what they're thinking and what we're thinking as well,” Symington said. “It's a working document. Every year we have to review it.”While some of the members of the public may have hoped to hear more about the intended purpose of the lands that will end up switching jurisdictions, those specifics will still have to be worked out over time, he added.“It is quite a large area,” he said. “It's not just taking areas and saying this should be residential or commercial. There's a lot more to it.”In June 2013 the councils will look at whether they should consider any new amendments to the plan.
