MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - The county’s municipal planning commission (MPC) has approved a subdivision application for the Noble Business Park east of Olds in Mountain View County.
The approval came by way of motion at the recent regularly scheduled commission meeting, held in person and on Zoom.
The approval is for 10 industrial/commercial lots and two public utility lots covering about 67 acres, as well as approximately five acres for internal subdivision road right of way. The subdivision is Phase 1 of the Noble Business Park development.
Located in the rural community of Netook, at NW 35-32-1-5 west of Highway 2 and south of Highway 27, the subject property was redesignated to business park district by council in December 2022.
Each of the proposed commercial/industrial lots will be serviced by individual water well and private sanitary sewage system, with the responsibility to service each lot being with the future lot owners, members heard.
During the Dec. 7 commission meeting, councillor and commission member Alan Miller asked about the timeline for construction of the emergency access road on the west side of the development.
“At what point would that be constructed? Is that right off the bat or is that something that would come in later?” asked Miller.
The road would be established when Phase 2 of the project comes in, with a temporary emergency access road constructed in the meantime, said Margaretha Bloem, director of planning with MVC.
Councillor and commission member Peggy Johnson asked, “How will the ongoing groundwater supply be monitored and evaluated?”
Bloem replied, “Any well licences for commercial use which would be in this business/industrial park would be under Alberta Environment’s jurisdiction.”
Each lot owner would need to apply to Alberta Environment for a water licence to drill a well, members heard.
Commission chair Gerald Ingeveld asked if the land could continue to be farmed to grow crops prior to the each individual lot being developed. Bloem said yes.
Two letters of objection/concern were received as part of the application.
“Due to the fact that neither of these current business parks are fully developed with empty lots available there is no reason to rezone more agricultural land for a business park when there is already an abundance of land with this zoning in the area,” one letter stated.
In a written response received by the commission, the applicant said, in part, that, “to mitigate the premature loss of agricultural land, the project team has developed a phasing strategy to ensure development can keep pace with the market and prevent under-utilized lands from sitting vacant.”
The subdivision application approval comes with a number of conditions, including that the applicant enter into a development agreement with the county.
That agreement would address construction specifications of internal subdivision roads and temporary emergency access, the provision of necessary utilities, easements and right of ways, stormwater management requirements, and landscape requirements.
Upon completion of the final phase (Phase 3), Noble Business Park will have approximately two dozen industrial/commercial lots, members heard.
