A huge proposed residential development in Foothills County is likely to be refused by a regional planning board, according to County officials.
Highfield & Rowland Acres would house thousands near the junction of Highway 2 and Highway 547, east of Aldersyde.
A recent third-party review of the plan casts doubt on whether it would be approved by the Calgary Metropolitan Region Board (CMRB), Foothills County Reeve Delilah Miller said during a council meeting on Jan. 22.
The CMRB application process includes a third-party review before a vote is taken by the board, and Miller said the review resulted in "a refusal by the third party."
Based on the refusal, Miller said the CMRB will most likely defeat the application, and she asked for discussion about whether to continue the application process.
“We’re thinking we should probably pull it back and not submit it at all,” Miller said.
County staff said that after the Jan. 22 meeting, it would be too late to pull the submission, but a motion to open discussion was defeated.
The application will be on the CMRB agenda on Feb. 7.
“We’ll have to move forward with this, and I believe it’ll cause the County some issues because of the decision of the third party reviewer,” Miller said.
The application calls for a sprawling development with lower housing densities than are permitted under CMRB Growth Plan policies.
Last year, Foothills County said exemptions would be needed from the CMRB for the development to go ahead.
“This will be, I think, a bit of a test case for the board, to see what their appetite is to allow a lower density,” Miller said during discussions in October.
If the Highfield & Rowland Acres proposal is rejected by the CMRB, it’s not clear what would happen to the plan, and the future of the CMRB itself is uncertain.
The Government of Alberta pulled funding from the regional board and its Edmonton-area counterpart, and made membership voluntary, late last year.
Since then, CMRB member Rocky View County said it would withdraw, while Foothills County signalled that it intended to leave sometime this year.
Further casting doubt on the future of the CMRB, the Edmonton Metropolitan Region Board voted unanimously to dissolve during a meeting on Jan. 23 and will end operations on March 31.
Results of the third-party review are expected to be on Foothills County's council agenda for its meeting on Jan. 29.
