Red Deer County is seeking $200,000 from the Alberta government to develop a regional plan with the City of Red Deer.
The money would come from the Alberta Community Partnership fund, which provides financial help for municipalities developing intermunicipal collaboration frameworks.
These frameworks are required under the province’s updated Municipal Government Act and are designed to ensure regional approaches to land-use planning, service delivery and cost-sharing.
For rural municipalities, developing the frameworks is a huge task. Red Deer County will be required to create 14 frameworks. The sought-after funding will go towards the framework with City of Red Deer.
Red Deer County is taking a similar lead on applying to the same fund for the development of a Sylvan Lake intermunicipal development plan. The county, Town of Sylvan Lake, Lacombe County and five summer villages will be part of that project.
An intermunicipal development plan is required in the collaboration frameworks.
Red Deer County assistant county manager Ric Henderson said the municipality has until spring 2020.
“Every municipality that touches us we have to have the intermunicipal collaboration framework document in place,” said Henderson.
“Really what that does is that captures what we’re doing intermunicipally, whose providing what services, what we’re co-operating with, that sort of thing.”
Henderson, who is in charge of the framework file for the county, expects they will get them all done by the deadline.
“Most of them it’s not that complicated. It’s just (time-consuming).”
Developing intermunicipal development plans requires consultation, public hearings and council resolutions. Since many of the county’s smaller urban communities don’t have the planning staff to undertake projects of this size the county has taken the lead.
Mayor Jim Wood said easing the process is the good relationship the county has with its urban partners.
“I think that will definitely help through this process,” said Wood. “Recognizing that, it’s still a big undertaking.”
pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
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