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Focus on the Red Deer Region |
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Mar. 9, 2006
City/Council Land War Will Benefit
No One The 'land wars' between the City and the County are of no value to any one. In spite of all the great benefits for locating in the Red Deer Region, prospective businesses looking for land will just go somewhere else. The City has recently concluded that the County is aggressively limiting the City's ability to grow, and as a result, initiated a dispute mechanism against the County, effectively putting the brakes on all County growth around the City and well beyond until the dispute is resolved, possibly dragging on for several months. After reviewing the City’s background information and comments and attending the Council meeting at which the decision to use the dispute mechanism was made, I have concluded that City Hall does not have a grasp of the County’s intentions. Their excuse is that the County hadn't invited them to take part in the planning process in the proper manner. Comments from Councillors and administration suggest that there is more to it than just poor communication – they either aren't paying attention to what is public knowledge or they are taking a position of procedural arrogance. It was suggested at the meeting that the County should not plan any growth close to the City as it would ‘sterilize’ land that the City might need for future growth, or at the very least, do so only with the City’s blessing and using the City’s procedures. The implication is that the City’s expansion well into the future takes precedence over the County’s current economic opportunity around the City. What I found a little bizarre was the fact that no one mentioned at the meeting that the County had recently presented a proposal to the City whereby the City could almost triple their available land over which they could have jurisdiction and therefore complete control. This area includes most of the County’s prime industrial tax base to the west and north of the City including the land that the City wants to annex for immediate industrial development west of Highway 2. It is also the area identified in the City's own 2004 Growth Study that was of future interest for expansion.
Why would the County
make such an offer if their intention was to restrict City growth? When
the City rejected the proposal citing that there were strings attached,
the County had no choice but to continue with their own strategy on the
fringe, especially considering the current economic climate of high
demand for serviced land.
Even if the City
doesn’t like some aspects of the County's proposal, it could serve as a
starting point for a revised Intermunicipal Development Plan and a joint
long term vision for both municipalities.
Paul Pettypiece
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