Kevin Hanson – Division 1
Quick Bits
I met with the residents of Elbow Valley West at their AGM, and had a good discussion about Highway 8, and some internal traffic concerns. There was a great turnout for an AGM, hats-off to those that made it – good AGM’s result in strong communities with respected voice at the County. The first meeting of 2025 for the Bragg Creek FireSmart Committee will be February 19, 2025. It will be held electronically, so hopefully we can get a full turn out of committee members. The agenda will be posted online in the “Meetings and Hearings” area of the RVC website, closer to the meeting date. I am sure there will be a good discussion given the events in California of late.
CMRB
Interesting development at the December 11, 2024 Council Meeting. It was resolved on a 4-3 vote of Council that “Rocky View County intends to withdraw from the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board, citing a need for greater planning autonomy and alignment with local priorities”. I voted against the motion, as I felt it was premature as there was insufficient information at that time to make an informed decision, or fully consider its consequences. More information is coming from the Province early this spring as to what the legislative changes will in fact be, as the regional boards are baked into the MGA both at the corporation and board level, and in the area of the legislative hierarchy of planning documents.
To assist the Province sort through the complexity, the CMRB is producing a report by March 31, 2025, outlining options to the Province. This will include recommendations for potential ways to unwind the crown corporation, including legal ramifications of current contracts for planning work, staff contracts, as well as guidance on how planning is currently intertwined into MGA level statutes, etc. There will also be recommendations for potential ways forward with voluntary membership, and without direct oversight of the Province and its $1M budget investment.
Under the MGA, being part of a regional board meant that member municipalities were not required to enter into Intermunicipal Development Plans and Intermunicipal Collaboration Frameworks with their neighbours that were in the board with them. Being outside of a regional entity means that we will have to enter into agreements with Cochrane, Airdrie, Chestermere, Foothills, and Calgary. RVC would not have to negotiate with Okotoks and High River.
Springbank Area Structure Plan
My colleague in Division 2 reported in the January HCN that I was promoting residential developments to be allowed to have parcels less than two acres. This on the surface is correct, but it is an overly simplistic statement without the context of the full discussion, as I indicated at the time that this was only for environmentally sensitive areas.
There are two policy areas that I took a stand on environmentally:
- Is with regard to continuing to pump water into our Country Residential Estates, and slowly and constantly trickle that water into the water table through our choice of sewage treatment systems. The details of slow percolation vs. storm water behaviour during snow melt or heavy rains on top of saturated surface layers, I will leave to experts.
- Is with regard to our Country Estate build form. Especially when it comes to environmentally sensitive areas like the Bow and Elbow River edges, escarpments off of the west bluffs of the Paskapoo uplands, and the 5 creek drainages into the Elbow River on the south side of Highway 1.
Although it sounds assuring that something like 2-acres is enshrined in policy at the ASP level, the fact is the ASP is a Council statue. As is our higher-level Municipal Development Plan. Any Council at any time has the ability to make decisions to amend their plans. Amendments to the plans can be sought by applicants, and if Council is of the will, it can enact changes – on the fly – to suit. This involves public hearings, and may involve higher-level agreements and policies (i.e. IDP’s or regional growth plans) that must be adhered to, but in my seven years on Council I have seen more than enough setting aside of policy to fit circumstance with often the deciding Councilors not even the local representation. The point of all this is that I would rather have seen a thoughtful addition of policy that was anticipatory of those situations, and laid out the ground rules for environmental interesting areas, and not just do it on the fly down the road, by future Councils that have not sat through a full ASP engagement experience.
Contact: KRHanson@RockyView.ca or call 403.463.1166.
