MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - Council has approved a number of changes to the policy and related procedure regarding the retention and acquisition of county land assets.
The move came by way of motion at the recent regularly scheduled council meeting.
Management of Mountain View County Fee Simple Property policy 6308 and the associated procedure helps provide direction to council when evaluating retention of the county’s land holdings. Consideration may be given to the sale, rent or granting of rights to some lands for development providing there is sufficient public benefit.
The policy also provides direction for administration when it receives requests from interested parties to buy or lease one of the county’s large or small parcels of land.
“Administration is able to assess the need for request for sale, use or rent to be considered abasing the county’s land needs, projected land requirements, local community interests, compatibility with adjacent land use and environmental impact,” said Jeff Holmes, the county's chief administrative officer.
“It further allows for administration to identify if there are any redesignation requirements or development limitations to the interested party.”
The governance review committee reviewed the policy in August, recommending several changes, including one to the policy.
The principles of the policy now include “community benefit”, changing from the previous “community use” principle.
The procedure for requesting use or sale of county-owned fee simple lands now states, “formal application, by written letter, must be made to Mountain View County for use or sale of county owned land.” and “any requests for the sale of county owned fee simple land shall be returned to council for consideration and decision.”
The previous wording, now deleted, stated that, “administration shall review and render a recommendation.”
The application process to request use or sale of county-owned fee simple lands now states that the applicant “must identify the need for the use or sale of the land” and that, “requirement to obtain appropriate re-designation, development permit, building permit and technical studies must be identified at the time of the request.”
Regarding financial consideration, the applicant “must identify funding sources and if applicable long-term funding sources, any funding requests from the county, short-term or long-term and any known liability to the county.”
Regarding the frequency of council to review land inventory, the procedure states that, “Once every four years council shall conduct a review of county-owned land, excluding environmental reserves, municipal reserves and road allowance.”
The complete updated policy and procedure is available for viewing on the county’s website.
