SUNDRE – In light of a complaint, the Town of Sundre and Mountain View County councils have both agreed to initiate a process exploring the potential annexation of land upon which the town’s sewage lagoon is situated as well as adjacent parcels.
Background information packages prepared in collaboration between both municipalities’ administrations were presented to each council last week.
Sundre’s sewage lagoons are located on a 28-acre parcel of town-owned land just north of the municipality’s northeast residential subdivision in an agricultural district within the county and operates under a development permit issued in 1981, reads part of the package.
“After a complaint was submitted in 2024 of other municipal uses on the land, the Town (of Sundre), as a good neighbour, addressed most of the uses and is working towards compliance within a reasonable timeline in 2025 to complete the outstanding actions to be in compliance with the agricultural zoning of the land,” it states.
Jim Hall, Sundre’s operations manager, told the Albertan the complaint stemmed primarily from the land being used as a temporary storage space.
In one instance, the municipality’s peace officer was previously dealing with a derelict RV that had been left on public land, said Hall.
“We had to hold onto it for so long before we could take it to the wreckers,” he said.
“With no place to store it, we took it to the lagoon and put it on one of our pads that we have there,” he said.
“We just stored it there until we could come up with a solution to get rid of it, which we did upon that complaint.”
Additionally, the municipality had over the past few decades piled up pit run construction material including concrete from broken curbs, which he called a normal practice when doing construction.
“We wanted to get that stuff crushed up as opposed to just putting it into landfill,” he said, adding the material has since recently been crushed.
“That’s a recycled product that our roads department will put down on back lanes and road construction,” he said.
“We got enough to probably do all our back lanes for the next few years,” he said, adding that had always been the intent.
“It just took us a few years to get it in the plan.”
There was also an accumulation of debris from past storms resulting in piled up broken trees and branches that were recently burned, he said.
“We’re hauling that material away to landfill after it was burned,” he said. “We just did a general tidy up.”
Benazir Thaha Valencia, Sundre’s director of community development, told town council during the regular March 24 meeting that the Intermunicipal Collaboration Committee had discussed the possible annexation during a meeting this past December.
“There were no objections raised to proceed to engage both councils and seek support to initiate an annexation application,” said Valencia.
“The sewage lagoon parcel cannot be annexed in isolation due to the town’s existing boundary and the surrounding parcels,” she said.
“Therefore, an annexation application for the quarter section directly northeast of the town will need to include five parcels (as well as) township roads between 331A and portions of Township Road 332 and Range Road 53.”
The five parcels include the town's, and all of the affected landowners within the area in question had been notified about the potential annexation application, she said.
While the matter was initiated by the county, the Land and Property Rights Tribunal has suggested that the town should lead the process for annexation, she said.
“No discussion has taken place on cost; this will need to be further explored by both municipalities,” she said, adding more “landowner engagement will also need to take place” if the councils agree to proceed.
“The next steps really is to have further conversations with affected landowners and more communication with Mountain View County,” she said.
Linda Nelson, chief administrative officer, added, “The idea would be to go forward with an uncontested annexation. If there is opposition to this, we have other opportunities and we would likely not proceed with an annexation.”
Additional background included in both councils’ agenda packages stated that the during the ICC discussions on the complaint file, the option was considered to redesignate the lands to institutional, educational and cultural district from agricultural district.
“The S-IEC zoning would allow for uses to obtain approval on the lands for other related Town’s uses,” it reads in part. “However, both administrations agree that there is benefit for the Town to control the lands containing the municipal utility by including the lands within the Town boundary, and that there is no benefit for the County to retain the lands with the county’s jurisdiction (no tax benefit),” it continues.
“The Town of Sundre is running a groundbreaking pilot project for new and advanced technologies for treating sewage at the location.”
Mayor Richard Warnock asked where the county fits into the equation and what kind of timeline might be involved.
Valencia said the county’s administration would present an identical report to their council at the March 26 meeting.
With regards to the timing, she said, “It’s typically a little more than a year to complete this process.”
The proposed motion recommended by administration was to provide direction to proceed with the annexation process in partnership with the county for parcels within NW 10-33-5-5, the parcel within NE 10-33-5-5 as well as adjacent roads.
“All the details and the particulars, we still need to identify once we get direction to proceed,” said Valencia.
In response to a question from council, Nelson said any portions of roads currently owned by the county would – if ultimately annexed – become the town’s responsibility.
“We would be responsible for maintaining it, snow clearing it, etcetera,” she said.
Council carried the proposed motion with Coun. Todd Dalke opposed.
During the county’s regularly scheduled March 26 meeting, council unanimously passed a motion directing their administration to start the annexation process in partnership with the Town of Sundre administration for said parcels and the adjacent roads.
Margaretha Bloem, county director of planning and development services, told council the annexation process will involve public consultation.
“We will have a public engagement that will be open to anybody on adjacent parcels within the area to then learn more about the annexation and provide comment and feedback,” she said.
- With files from Dan Singleton
