OLDS — Mayor Judy Dahl is pleased by the provincial government’s approval of a plan to transfer three quarters of land into the northeast part of Olds from Mountain View County.
An order-in-council approving the plan was announced Dec. 8 under the auspices of Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver.
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 in July 2020.
A notice of intent to undertake the annexation said the Town of Olds needed to annex 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.
It added that annexing that land would give Town of Olds officials more control over the eventual design and construction of a northern arterial road.
According to the notice of intent, development of lands in a northeast commercial and/or industrial park may not occur for four or five years, but acquiring the land now would give town officials time to properly plan that development.
“This is a significant announcement as it confirms the outcomes of our Intermunicipal Development Plan with Mountain View County; therefore it shows that Inter Municipal Collaboration efforts are successful,” Dahl wrote in an email.
“Having this land secured allows the Town (of Olds) to create new growth opportunities within our boundaries. As this was uncontested, it is a proud accomplishment for the town, the county and the residents within the annexation area.
“More importantly, with the addition of this land, we have identified that we have secured enough land to allow us to grow residentially, commercially and industrial for the next 40- 60 years, based on current population growth estimates."
Dahl said the annexation is “the key step in implementing the Town of Olds' overall plans to enhance a viable, safe, family-oriented and healthy community that embodies the sustainable development goals and objective of the provincial land use polices.”
Dahl said town officials raised the status of the annexation request when they met with McIver during the Alberta Municipalities convention in Edmonton last month.
“It is this venue where dialogue with our provincial ministers is valuable and effective around the table,” she wrote.
