Council Update

We want to be sure you’re aware of two recent decisions that are good news for residents in Springbank and Bearspaw.  It is encouraging to see that councillors are listening when residents express their concerns loudly and clearly.

Springbank Area Structure Plan update

The first decision came at last month’s Governance Committee when the Committee rejected Administration’s recommendation to proceed with the current draft Springbank Area Structure Plan.  Instead, councillors directed Administration to report back to Council before the end of June on the feasibility of combining the Central Springbank, North Springbank, and Moddle ASPs into one ASP while maintaining the existing land use strategies in those ASPs.  Council also reaffirmed its direction to ensure that the ASP aligns with the Regional Growth Plan (which restricts residential development in Springbank to 2-acre parcels or their equivalent).  We like to think that resident participation in the ASP review process was a key factor in making this happen and would like to thank everyone who participated.

While the Springbank ASP saga is not over, it is now moving in a direction that more accurately reflects residents’ views.  Once we know when staff will be reporting back to council, we will let everyone know. 

Bearspaw’s Ascension application refused

The second decision was Council’s February 1^st decision to unanimously refuse the Ascension land use redesignation.  Ascension is located at the south-west corner of Highway 1A and 12 Mile Coulee Road in Bearspaw. 

As a reminder, Ascension’s Concept Scheme was approved by the previous council.  The proposal was to construct 883 housing units (with an overall density of 3.76 units/acre) and a 51-acre commercial “marketplace” to include two large stores, each of which would have been large enough to house a Costco.

The Bearspaw community is to be congratulated on coming out in force to clearly highlight why this proposal is not a suitable land use for the location.  Residents packed the council chambers, with many of them spilling out into the foyer on the first day of the two-day public hearing.  Public presentations in opposition took almost 5 hours.  Only one individual spoke in support (more on this later).

As Reeve Kissel pointed out when she made the motion to refuse the application, while everyone realizes this land will be developed at some point, there needs to be a solution that fits with the lifestyle the County is selling – a country lifestyle, not a city lifestyle.  She also pointed out that after sitting through the two-day hearing she had more questions about its feasibility than she had before the hearing started. 

In her closing statement, Councillor Wright stated that the developer’s consultants themselves emphasized the site’s significant constraints.  She then pointed out that, because of those constraints, the only way to make Asension work was to practically decimate all the surrounding communities and, by doing so, destroy the very reasons those residents chose to live there.

As noted above, only one individual spoke in support of the Ascension application. While that would not usually have been noteworthy, in this case the speaker was the Chair of the Bearspaw Community Association, Bruce Hanson. 

As can be expected, this caused quite a stir in the overflowing council chambers.  To put it into perspective, Bearspaw residents submitted over 500 letters in opposition to the application, with only 18 in support.  A number of those speaking in opposition pointedly mentioned that they did not appreciate or agree with their Community Association’s comments. 

Shortly after the first day of the public hearing, the Community Association issued a press release justifying its position.  This was followed almost immediately by another press release. This time, stating that Hanson had submitted his resignation and that, at the request of the Board, the Vice-Chair (Anita Carey), Secretary (Roc Spence), and Treasurer (Tahir Jamil) had stepped down from their executive positions.

MDP Review

Please don’t forget that the Municipal Development Plan is currently under review.  With council’s willingness to listen, it makes it that much more important to be sure your voice is heard in the ongoing public consultations.  If you haven’t already done so, be sure to respond to the MDP survey.  Here’s the link.  Some of the questions may not be relevant to your circumstances, so don’t feel compelled to answer all the questions.  Just be sure to make your views known on the issues that are important to you.