The public will be able to view Rocky View’s County Plan draft as early as March, predicts Richard Barss, project manager for the document.
Staff has organized and released results from the second set of public workshops held before Christmas and an online survey that gathered input on what residents hope to see in the updated plan.
The plan identifies the direction of growth in the county over the next 10 years and is the municipality’s highest-level planning document.
“This round will see more specific goals,” explained Barss.
About 380 people provided feedback and overall comments expressed the goals and directions in the document should be made clearer and more specific.
Barss said the draft will address this concern explaining staff are planning to incorporate action plans on how these goals can be met.
“We wanted to make the goals clear and readable,” he said.
Goals dealt with growth management, working with the land (agriculture, environmental sustainability and natural resources), building liveable communities, strengthening communities and regions.
All draft directions received at least 50 per cent support from respondents and the average was 76 per cent workshop results show.
Topics described as contentious included where residential and business development belongs, whether hamlets were a good fit for the county and if growth belongs in them, whether beyond core services (recreational, social, cultural facilities and programs) belong in Rocky View and who should provide these services, and how to support gravel resource areas.
“That is the tough part,” said Barss when asked how policies will be created for topics that have divided public support.
“We have direction from other County documents such as the Agricultural Master Plan that we can look at,” he said.
Barss added can look at other municipalities policies as well and see what worked for others.
“Where there isn’t public consensus we will try and explain why we chose what we did,” he said.
Barss said the public will still have a chance for input as will council.
The draft is expected to be presented to the public during the week of March 18. Feedback will be gathered and taken back for work. Council is expected to vote on it in June.
To see the results from the public workshop, visit www.rockyviewcounty.ca
Reeve Rolly Ashdown said he’s happy with what has come forward so far and said there has been a lot of public input.
“The whole idea of the County Plan is that it comes from the residents of the County.”
