The City of Red Deer has long complied with incoming provincial rules on residential developments around abandoned oil and gas wells.
Starting on Nov. 1, the province requires municipalities and developers to ensure inactive wells are checked for and any construction has a minimum setback of five metres from any well.
Since 1996, the province only encouraged such standards.
Angus Schaffenburg, the city’s major projects planner, said identifying such sites is a routine part of neighbourhood planning.
“We’d identify that at the stage when the area structure plan is being prepared.”
There’s no chance homes would be built on top of such sites.
“We certainly don’t want anything on top of them and that’s what the legislation mandates.”
The new regulations also apply to development permits for new buildings larger than 500 square feet or additions that would make a building larger than 500 square feet.
rfiedler@www.reddeeradvocate.com