Rocky View council chambers was filled to the hilt July 23 for day two of the public hearing for the proposed County Plan.
However, residents will have to wait until September for council to weigh in on the highest-level planning document that, once approved, will guide development in Rocky View for the next 10 to 12 years.
The hearing began on June 25 with more than 20 residents, stakeholders and developers voicing their opinions to council, and was postponed to allow residents affected by flooding in Bragg Creek the opportunity to speak.
Continuing for three hours July 23, about 25 people spoke – the majority calling for council to allow consumer demand to dictate the region’s growth rather than adopting the proposed 2.5 to three per cent growth goal over the next decade.
“With a restrictive land-use policy that restricts to country residential and large format housing, you don’t need the County Plan to restrict growth, the market will take care of that for you,” said Matthew Boukall, director of Residential Advisory Services with Altus Group, who was speaking on behalf of CL Ranches Ltd.
Boukall said the proposed development strategy “assumes growth is derived from the supply of approved land” and “ignores” market factors such as housing location, pricing and affordability, competitive pressures from other markets and shifting consumer demand.
Bruce Kendall, a member of the Reeve’s Task Force on Growth Planning, echoed Nicall’s thoughts saying the County has invested “substantially” in infrastructure.
The County has invested more than $100 million to date to build infrastructure to support development in Balzac and Conrich, leaving the County with $66-million in debt. The total is down from about $75 million in 2011 using money acquired from residential taxes.
“The market will follow the strengths that this County has developed and one of those is our infrastructure. You’ve made the investment, so please, capitalize on it and get it paid back,” said Kendall.
He added a common thread he heard while serving on the Reeve’s Task Force was that agricultural producers didn’t want to lose the right to consider their land for development in the future.
“It is not the County’s responsibility to pick people and places to be winners and losers,” said Ron Hanson, a ranch owner west of Airdrie.
“The County’s responsibility should be to set-up rules for long-term sustainability and development and the cost to deliver the services needed to sustain them, and let business determine where and what is practical,” he said.
The proposed County Plan identifies 17 areas for residential growth with the goal that future development plans will be financially sustainable.
Hamlet developments include Conrich, Harmony and Langdon. Country Residential developments include Greater Bragg Creek, Bearspaw, Balzac East and Cochrane North.
Although the majority of speakers at the hearing called for a more development-friendly growth rate, Senior Planner and Project Manager Richard Barss said the County Plan was formed based on the majority of residents’ wishes voiced during the public consultation process wanting a moderate growth rate that respects the County’s rural character.
The County facilitated workshop sessions, online surveys and online workshops between June 2012 and March of this year to receive residents’ input on what they want the county to look like for the next 10 to 12 years. More than 2,300 comments were received through letters or in-person.
Springbank resident Jerry Arshinoff spoke in rebuttal to the comments made at the hearing saying all levels of government have regulations and laws that should be followed.
“To be able to develop in any manner you please and essentially say, ‘to hell with your neighbours,’ is absolutely unfair. If you live in a community, you do have great obligations to the people around you,” he said.
