The City of Chestermere applied to annex nearly 25,000 acres of Rocky View County (RVC) land Dec. 15, including a large portion of land included in the controversial Conrich Area Structure Plan (ASP) – with no prior consultation with residents or other stakeholders.
The move was a response to RVC’s recent adoption of the plan, which received third reading at a meeting Dec. 8. According to Chestermere Mayor Patricia Matthews, the City brought forward their concerns with the plan more than 18 months ago, but said she feels they “got no traction” with RVC.
“We’ve tried to make our concerns about unsustainable growth loud and clear to them. We did put a motion in place saying that we would go through mediation with them, but they did not advance that conversation at all,” Matthews said. “We feel we have no other avenues to move forward.”
RVC Reeve Greg Boehlke said the development proposed for the Conrich area would be in keeping with the County’s track record of “working hard to develop a well-rounded economy,” with a 75 per cent residential and 25 per cent commercial tax base. According to Boehlke, the proposed annexation “isn’t about land.”
“(Matthews) can see plenty of unsustainable development when she looks within her own jurisdiction,” he said. “(Chestermere) has allowed their residential (tax base) to way outgrow a sustainable number. Now they are trying to take away the sustainability of their neighbour by attempting to annex some of our most productive land – and the land with the most potential for commercial development.”
The Conrich ASP was approved despite concerns from the City of Calgary. At the public hearing in May, Mayor Naheed Nenshi threatened RVC with the “mother of all annexations” if the plan was adopted – but according to Senior Planner of City Wide and Regional Strategies with City of Calgary Neil Younger, Calgary currently has no position on the issue.
“There’s been no dialogue with our council, so at this point, it’s between (RVC) and Chestermere,” he said. “We did send a letter saying our preference was to have mediation prior to third reading, but we are still hoping to work through this.”
Younger said Calgary is “following dispute resolution protocol” as indicated in the City’s Intermunicipal Development Plan (IDP) with RVC, and is considering initiating an appeal under the Municipal Government Act. He said this appeal must be made within 30 days of the document receiving third reading.
“We’ve been working for the last six years to get (an IDP) put in place (between Chestermere and RVC),” Matthews said.
“Our council approved it for first reading in the spring, but RVC council hasn’t even seen it. That’s really disheartening.”
According to Boehlke, Chestermere’s process for approving documents involves presenting it to council for first reading prior to sending it out to the public or other agencies for consultation – RVC’s policy, however, is to send documents out for circulation before they are ever brought before council.
“There is no hold-back on our part on this, we just follow a different process,” he said. “They could have gone to mediation to work this out, but instead, they chose to circumvent the process the Province has laid out and put forward an unprecedented request, which has had no public consultation.”
A “normal annexation process,” Boehlke said, would be similar to the one followed by the County and the City of Chestermere in 2009, when the two municipalities worked co-operatively to give the City enough land to support a minimum of 35 years of growth. This process, he said, requires sound planning justification.
“We have no immediate plans to develop that area, but we owe it to our residents to ensure that there is good development in place and that there are no detrimental effects for Chestermere,” Matthews said. “What we are asking is that development is frozen in the areas we’ve identified, until this can be worked through. At this point, I’m not sure what else we could possibly do.”
According to a press release issued by RVC, the County has requested that Chestermere withdraw the letter to the Minister, but if the annexation attempt moves forward, RVC will be demanding a “full and proper process that engages all stakeholders.”
