No serious issues were raised by about 10 people who attended last week's public participation meeting to learn more about the municipality’s impending new land use bylaw that will, among other considerations, accommodate cannabis retail sales.
“There really were no major concerns,” said Linda Nelson, the town's chief administrative officer.
However, there was a lot of interest as well as some good questions raised during the Wednesday, Aug. 22 open house held in council chambers, she added.
Something that did arise from the discussion on the retail cannabis part of the land use bylaw was a desire to ensure the regulations are not overly prohibitive in terms of setback distances, she said.
The provincial government has legislated a minimum setback of 100 metres from schools and health-care facilities, although municipalities have the authority to increase that distance as per their discretion.
The new land use bylaw was rewritten to modernize and replace the former document that was approved in 1997.
“Since its approval, there have been over 50 amendments to address provincial requirements, development industry innovation and emerging new uses that need to be accommodated in a land use bylaw,” reads information outlined in the slideshow presentation shown to the public.
“The new land use bylaw itself is much more friendly — the language is easier to understand, the uses are more clearly defined,” said Nelson, adding new uses are also included, which in turn offers new development opportunities.
A new process will be a commitment to hold public open house meetings any time a development pertaining to the land use bylaw comes up so residents can ask any questions that might be on their minds before the formal legislated public hearing is held, she said.
The land use bylaw is a document that continuously evolves alongside emerging trends and new budding developments or industries, she added.
The municipality is also in the process of drafting a bylaw that will regulate the consumption of cannabis in the community, she said.
“That’ll be a bit more prohibitive than actually selling cannabis,” she said, explaining that sales and production of cannabis are already highly regulated by the provincial and federal governments and therefore beyond the municipality’s mandate.
For now, the intent is to ensure people will not consume cannabis in public places, particularly where children are present. Parks, trails and open spaces such as Snake Hill, are among the restricted areas, she said.
“We want to ensure that people don’t have to breathe in second-hand (smoke).”
The municipality deliberately separated the cannabis consumption bylaw from the new land use bylaw for transparency’s sake, she said.
“We want input and opinions so we can tailor this bylaw to the community,” she said, adding that no one who attended last week’s open house expressed opposition to either of the bylaws.
“They understand we cannot prohibit retail sales — we can only regulate them.”
The cannabis bylaw will allow consideration of retail stores as a discretionary use in the central commercial district, the highway commercial district as well as industrial districts, but not in neighbourhood commercial districts or residential districts.
Public hearings for the new land use bylaw as well as the local cannabis consumption legislation are set for Sept. 10 and Sept. 17 respectively.
“We will still be soliciting public input on where cannabis can be consumed,” said Nelson, welcoming questions and feedback from residents. Anyone so inclined is encouraged to reach her at the town office by calling 403-638-3551.
“We want to ensure that people are aware that they need to give us the input so we know what the community wants.”
