OLDS — The provincial government has approved a $200,000 grant application by the Town of Olds and Mountain View County to draw up an infrastructure plan for three quarters of land annexed by the town from the county.
Specifically, chief administrative officer Brent Williams told council the Alberta Community Partnership (ACP) grant will be used to draw up an area structure and servicing plan for the annexed land.
“So over the next couple of months, you’ll see some RFPs (requests for proposals) and advertisements going out to start the water, sanitary and storm water modelling.
“And then, assuming there is still cash left over from these funds, by the end of the year, hopefully a concept of what an ASP (area structure plan for that land) will look like,” Williams said during town council’s March 27 meeting.
A letter from Municipal Affairs Minister Rebecca Schulz to Town of Olds Mayor Judy Dahl included in council’s agenda packed confirmed approval of the grant application.
“I am pleased to inform you that the Town of Olds has been approved for a grant of $200,000 under the inter-municipal collaboration component of the 2022-23 ACP in support of your joint servicing and planning study – northeast Olds project,” Schulz wrote.
However, she added, “the approval does not signify broader provincial support for any recommendation or outcome that might result from your project.”
In December, 2021, the provincial government approved a plan by the town to transfer three quarters of land into the northeast part of Olds from Mountain View County.
The land runs in an upside down “L” shape. It runs east from the Rge. Rd 14 to Rge. Rd. 13, then south to Highway 27.
In addition to those chunks of land, the plan called for annexing 1,600 metres of land of Rge. Rd. 13 north from Highway 27 and about 400 metres of Rge. Rd. 14 north from the edge of town.
The annexation was negotiated with Mountain View County and was laid out in an updated draft Intermunicipal Development Plan (IDP) unveiled by representatives of the town and Mountain View County back in July 2020.
A notice of intent to undertake the annexation said the Town of Olds needed the land in order to plan for and attract commercial and industrial development.
It said the amount of available land for those purposes had dropped to “a 20-year supply when the impact of lands not available to the market is taken into account.”
As a result, it said, the amount of industrial land and the location of that land is becoming tighter and tighter for prospective investors.
