OLDS — On Nov. 12, Town of Olds council will hold a public hearing on proposed changes to the West View Area Structure Plan that would increase housing density by less than 100 people.
The public hearing on a bylaw to make that and other changes will be held in council chambers at 1 p.m.
Municipal land use planner Kyle Sloan told council that the area structure plan (ASP) for an area covering about 100 acres in the northwest corner of the Town of Olds accessible by 70th Avenue was originally approved in 2017.
However, a town document says since then, the landowner has been working on changes to the plan “in response to shifting market demands and preferences.”
The document says if approved, the total population is projected to rise to 1,939 residents from 1,891 residents in the original 2017 ASP when the neighbourhood is fully built out. That’s a density of 18.5 units per hectare.
A town policy regarding residential density for new neighbourhoods says the target density is between 11 and 13 units per gross developable hectare.
However, “residential densities that are higher than the above target shall be encouraged where there is sufficient capacity in the major municipal utility infrastructure.”
“The West View ASP is well served by some of the newer water and sanitary infrastructure, so there are no concerns from administration there,” Sloan said.
In the 2017 version of the plan, a large buffer area was put in place surrounding a waste transfer station to the south of the plan area.
However, that transfer station has since been decommissioned. As a result, the layout of roads, green spaces, and the location of a storm pond have been changed.
Normally, councillors don’t ask questions about bylaws up for first reading; they’re dealt with during the required public hearing.
However, Coun. James Cummings said he had a concern about the proposed plan that he felt just couldn’t wait for that hearing.
Cummings said due to issues with the sanitary lift station, “neighbouring fields” have had to be flooded “on I believe four occasions in the last year-and-a-half.”
He noted the proposal calls for a stormwater retention pond to be located adjacent to that lift station in the northwest corner of the planned neighbourhood.
“My concern is of course, that even though we are working at fixing our sewage system, there’s always the potential that that’s going to overflow, there’ll be damage and we will need to flood that field,” he said.
Cummings said such floods could end up “cross-contaminating the Red Deer River with sewage.”
He said he raised his concern now to provide time for some solutions to that potential problem to be found.
Chief administrative officer Brent Williams said the stormwater pond in question links downstream to the main storm pond by the off-leash dog park “so the broader effect is not a huge risk.”
He also said the municipality's efforts to mitigate lift station issues “have shown progress.”
“In 2024 for example, we have not seen infestation overflow events, and we have had continued progress since those significant rainfalls in June of this year,” Williams said.
In the end, council voted to give first reading to the bylaw and to set the Nov. 12 date for the public hearing.
Council also voted to set Nov. 12 at 1 p.m. as the date, time and place for another public hearing on another proposed bylaw: to change the zoning at 5402 50th St. from low density residential (R1) to medium density residential (R3).
