Lacombe County has dropped its appeal of a plan by two neighbouring municipalities to guide development near Sylvan Lake.
The Town of Sylvan Lake and Red Deer County joined planning forces to develop an intermunicipal development plan to accommodate future growth.
However, Lacombe County politicians argued that the plan, which was approved by both councils, didn’t go far enough in ensuring the lake is not put at risk by future development.
County councillors voted in November to appeal the IDP to the Municipal Government Board. Council voted last Thursday to abandon that process after the town and Red Deer County agreed to make changes to their plan.
In making its case, Lacombe County pointed out that its Sylvan Lake Area Structure Plan requires a 15-metre environmental reserve setback from wetlands and a 30-metre no-development zone from the lake.
The intermunicipal plan refers to setting aside a 30-metre setback “where possible.” The county was also not happy that there is no requirement in the IDP for multi-lot developments on communal water or sewer systems to hook up to regional water and sewer lines when they become available.
In amendments approved by Red Deer County and Sylvan Lake’s council, the “where possible” is eliminated from the text, meaning a 30-metre reserve will be required when land on the shoreline of the lake is subdivided outside the town.
Other changes emphasize that developments must tie into regional sewer and water systems once they become available.
Dale Freitag, Lacombe County’s manager of planning services, said the other municipalities agreed to make changes after senior administrators, reeves and mayors met to find common ground.
“There was good co-operation from all municipalities to make sure the common vision continues forward,” he said.
Freitag said one of the county’s biggest concerns is that public access to the lake remains even as choice lakeshore properties are developed.
“The fact of the matter is once you give up that land to development, you can never get it back,” he said. “So we have to look 50 years down the road and decide where do we want to protect public access?”
Putting aside reserves that can’t be developed is one way to ensure public access is maintained.
pcowley@www.reddeeradvocate.com