Rocky View County (RVC) council unanimously approved amendments to the land use and conceptual scheme for High Plains Industrial Park, to provide a framework for development on a section of the park adjacent to Range Road 291, in the Balzac East area.
The conceptual scheme was initially adopted in July 2010 as a comprehensive plan for approximately 1,280 acres of land just north of the City of Calgary, providing a mix of industrial and commercial uses with staged development.
“To this date, stage one to stage three, have been adopted – the outline plans and land use approval,” said RVC Planner Johnson Kwan. “This purpose of this application is to adopt the stage six outline plan, which includes 13 industrial activity lots.”
The plan, which encompasses two sections of land, also accommodates one public service lot to be used for stormwater management purposes.
According to administration’s report, development of the outline plan area will be carried out in three phases, but the proposed phasing is conceptual only and may be subject to changes at the time of subdivision.
“Phasing may change over time because of market demand,” said applicant Bryan Romanesky with Citytrend, who spoke at the public hearing. “What is important for phase one is to make sure we are able to build a stormwater facility and to create an internal access for the existing buildings.”
The stormwater management plan was of particular concern to council, who wanted to ensure the proposed facility would be able to accommodate the discharge on site – especially since stormwater management has been an issue throughout the county.
According to Adrian Munro, chief executive of Highfield Investment Group (development management), managing stormwater has not been a problem for the development in the past – even in the early stages, when only one storm pond was available.
“High Plains has a very unique and integrated stormwater management system, where we have really concentrated on industrial uses for stormwater and having a robust irrigation system,” Munro said. “We have two large storm ponds in phase two and phase three, and they are all integrated. We are finding it easier and easier to operate the levels in each of the ponds as we develop more and more land.”
No opposition was present to speak against the applications at the public hearing and administration recommended approval as both the conceptual scheme amendment and land use amendment are consistent with the County Plan. Area Councillor Deputy Reeve Lois Habberfield moved to approve the applications and third reading was passed unanimously for both.
