OLDS — The town is one step closer to possibly annexing three quarters of land to the community.
Council voted during its March 22 meeting to submit an annexation negotiation report to the Municipal Government Board (MGB). That report serves as the town’s formal annexation application to annex the land.
The provincial cabinet will make the final decision on the annexation request and it could take six months or so before that decision is rendered.
The land the town plans to annex runs in an upside down “L” shape and is located northeast of the town hall. 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 is also to annex 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 purpose of the annexation is to plan for and attract commercial and industrial development and ensure there’s enough land available to make that happen.
Once it receives the document, the MGB will determine if a public hearing is required and, if necessary, arrange and hold one.
There is no time limit for the MGB to reach a decision on application.
After the MGB makes its decision, it goes to the provincial cabinet. If the cabinet approves it, it will do so via an order-in-council. lt could take six months or so for the town to receive a formal decision from the province.
The report outlines the process that was used by the town and county to look at the idea of annexing that land as well as the negotiations that took place over the past year to get to this point.
Natasha Wright of Parkland Community Planning Services explained the deal to council.
She said the town and county have agreed on compensation for loss of municipal property tax revenue that would go to Mountain View County. That includes foregone municipal property tax as well as education tax, which goes to the province.
Also, under the deal, for 20 years, landowners within the annexation area will be assessed as if they were still within the county with provisions to keep their tax rates as low as possible.
An agreement was struck on maintenance of portions of two range roads covered within the annexation area.
On March 4, the annexation negotiation report was reviewed by the lntermunicipal Collaboration Committee (lCC) which represents the town and county. It recommended that the report go to both councils for consideration.
Mountain View County Council passed a resolution accepting the annexation negotiation report during its regular council meeting on March 10.
That left only Olds council’s approval before the package would go to the MGB for its approval.
Mayor Mike Muzychka said the annexation could provide the town with available industrial and commercial land for the next 40 to 50 years.
He and other councillors thanked all those who were involved in moving the annexation request along to this step.
“It’s a phenomenal report in my estimation, and we had whole-hearted buy-in,” Muzychka said.
He also thanked representatives of Mountain View County for their efforts, noting it took years to get to this point.
Coun. Mary Janer Harper, who also chairs the ICC said all the landowners involved were “very cooperative” with the annexation request.
“They reviewed the documents quite thoroughly and made comments to Parkland Community Planning in reference to it. So I think it was a very lengthy but well worth the process for our community engagement,” she said.
There was very little comment and no opposition to the annexation. To members of the public who were participating in the Zoom call, Coun. Mary Anne
Overwater said that’s because it’s been discussed at length many times during the process.
