Irricana Town council is asking residents for input on a concept plan for potential development in the community’s southwest corner, which was presented by Dillon Consulting Ltd. at the March 7 regular council meeting.
The plan outlines 92 potential residential lots that could be subdivided, as well as a potential school site, storm water pond and plans to allow for the expansion of existing recreational facilities and community service sites like the cemetery.
Interim Chief Administrative Officer Dawn Mosondz said the concept plan will be made available to the public on the Town’s website and residents can give input by emailing the Town at [email protected], through its Facebook page or by bringing a written suggestion directly to the office.
“We’ll collect it any way that they are able to provide it to us,” she said.
Pat Maloney, senior planner and associate with Dillon consulting, said the community was asked in October 2015 what types of uses it wanted to see in this area and, aside from the massive interest in a school, comprehensive recreational opportunities was the number one criteria many residents were concerned with.
Though the proposed residential land in the concept plan accounts for 31.5 per cent of the total area, Maloney said it is a means for the Town to generate revenue to help pay for the expansion of recreational facilities.
“It’s kind of like the chicken and the egg,” she said.
With that in mind, Dillon conducted a population projection based on historical growth and predicted if trends continued in Irricana, the community’s population would nearly double to 2,200 in 20 years.
“If you’re going to be spending money developing residential, you need to know there’s the potential for the absorption of that residential housing,” Maloney said.
If council accepts the concept plan, Maloney said the Town would have to amend its municipal development plan – which currently states the whole area would be dedicated to residential and commercial – to allow for residential development as well as textual amendments to bring it to conformity, which would require a public hearing.
“It would be a fairly simple amendment,” Maloney said.
The storm pond, which would support the entire new development, could be created in such a way that it is naturalized with walking paths around it, she said.
“We can design this so it is more of an amenity for the community,” she said. “It’s not just a hard public utility.”
A road system has also been developed in the plan, she said, that links future development with existing development and provides the two roads required for a school site.
Though Irricana is not positioned to receive a school until the latter end of Rocky View Schools’ future growth expansion, Maloney said having this concept plan becomes a great marketing tool if any charter or Catholic schools were interested in building in Irricana.
Councillor Kim Schmaltz, concerned with the high percentage of the plan proposed for residential development, said he wanted to get it online and out to the public and hopes residents will take the time to give feedback to the Town.
“I would have liked to have seen a lot more recreation in there,” he said.
