The City of Airdrie will be hosting another open house to gather feedback about its proposed Land Use Bylaw (LUB) on March 2 from 5 to 8 p.m. at City Hall.
Senior Planner Stephen Utz said the open house was the final step in a process of collecting public feedback on the proposed document that began in 2012.
“We are getting close to taking the bylaw to (City) council for readings and the public hearing, so what we wanted to do was touch base with residents about some of the things they mentioned to us before,” he said, “including some of the changes to the bylaw, the timeline to adopt the bylaw and also just to discuss a couple of key issues residents have generally been concerned with.”
Some of the key issues being addressed in the new LUB are secondary suites, front drive and rear drive access to certain residences and development permits.
Airdrie’s LUB, originally drafted in 2005, is due for a complete overhaul, according to Utz.
“The LUB is about 11 years old. Planning best practices have changed somewhat in that time. Along the way we’ve made a lot of amendments to the bylaw,” he said. “We’ve also annexed a lot of land from Rocky View (County) in 2012 so this is an opportunity to consolidate all of that and to create some new districts and new opportunities for both us and the development industry.”
According to Utz, the LUB is a “living document” and amendments are frequently made to it. There comes a time when starting afresh with the bylaw becomes the best option.
Utz said residents are encouraged to drop into the open house on March 2.
“We’re going to be very much available for questions and answers,” he said. “We probably will not give a formal presentation but we’ll have one at the ready if it looks like that’s what the public wants.”
Attendance at a previous open house held Oct. 29, 2015 was good, according to Utz, with 20 people from the business sector coming out during the day and an additional 20 residents attending an evening session.
Municipalities such as Airdrie are required to have a LUB under the provincial Municipal Government Act. According to Utz, drafting a new LUB for Airdrie is very complex, requiring a significant timeline.
“There’s a lot of different stakeholders. This is the set of rules that govern all development,” he said. “We’re anticipating (the draft LUB) will go to the planning commission in early April and then council in mid-April, early May.”
