The Town of Sundre is proposing a new land use bylaw to replace the existing recreation vehicle direct control (RV-DC) district.
Council passed first reading of the new bylaw during the March 18 meeting.
An open house regarding the bylaw will be held during the regular council meeting on April 15 in council chambers.
This is a chance for the public to provide their input before council passes second and third readings, says Erin O'Neill, the town's manager of planning and development.
“The condominium association requested that a number of changes be made in order to bring the land use bylaw up to the standard of today's recreational vehicles,” she said.
The proposed recreation vehicle (RV-1) district will repeal and replace the existing RV-DC district, she said.
A few specific changes to the bylaw include increasing the maximum width, changing the height and definition.
“We made a larger width because today's recreational vehicles are larger than when we passed the original bylaw,” she said.
The original bylaw was passed in 1997, amended in 2004, as well as 2011.
The proposed bylaw has now been entirely rewritten, she said.
“We rewrote it to provide greater clarity, to remove the references to the Alberta building code and to change a number of provisions,” she explained.
A general land use district is replacing the existing direct control district in order to provide the decision making to the development authority, rather than council.
This is because the use and development of the land or buildings within the area are “permitted and discretionary and there are not site-specific concerns”, she said in a request for decision (RFD) to council.
The references to the Alberta building code have been removed because a land use bylaw cannot enforce the code, she said.
Also, a number of definitions have been added to the bylaw to provide better clarity, she added.
“One specific change that is proposed is regarding seasonal storage of an unoccupied recreational vehicle,” she said in the RFD.
It was recently brought to town administration's attention by the Riverside RV Condominium Association that people were storing a second recreational vehicle on various lots within the park, she said.
“As the intent of the district is not for a storage facility and due to fire and safety concerns, administration has included a section under 2.0 that allows the storage of a 2nd unoccupied recreational vehicle from Oct. 1 to May 15 provided all minimum yard requirements and maximum lot coverage provisions are met,” reads the RFD.
In addition, town administration is also requesting in the proposal that a development permit be secured for the second vehicle storage.
Also in the proposed bylaw, town administration is given a 10 per cent variance or relaxation authority, to limit the minor variances that are to be heard by the Municipal Planning Commission.
The proposed district has been sent to all property owners within Riverside RV Park, along with anyone within 300 metres.
Only a few calls have been received to date, she said, but no major concerns have been voiced at this point.
If no major concerns are made at the open house, council plans to go through with second and third reading, she said.
Also at the meeting on March 18, the condominium association requested that the application fee be waived, which was expected to be discussed yesterday evening during the governance meeting.
