A number of MD of Foothills residents who fall just outside of Okotoks’ new proposed boundary are asking to be let in.
The Town of Okotoks has received multiple requests from landowners to be included within its proposed annexation area since since announcing its intent to annex 33 quarter sections from the MD of Foothills in 2013.
At a town council meeting on June 15, council approved a strategic review of the boundary to weigh the pros and cons of including the lands in question.
MD of Foothills resident Diane Luttmer is one of 10 residents along 12 Street, just north of the Okotoks GM dealership, who want to be included within the town. She said they have a number of concerns with the future development of the land that sits adjacent to them, and believe they will have more input in the process if they become Okotoks residents.
“From what we understand the focus of the town will be to put pure commercial highway development in there and because we've got a significant amount of water and issues with water and also our vicinity to the highway these are currently zoned country residential parcels or the most part, so it will dramatically change the land use there,” she said. “Also the perspective of our land values and use of our lands because we would have really incompatible uses budding up against one another, and being organized by two different municipalities.”
Luttmer said they believe the process would go much smoother if they were all part of the annexation and are included in the comprehensive planning – something that can’t happen if their homes remain within the MD of Foothills.
“I think it just creates a lot of uncertainty for us as to how and whether our interests will be managed at all by the town of Okotokos because it has, as we understand it, some responsibilities to deal with adjacent municipality which would be the MD of foothills,” she said. “But there's no guarantees for us that the planning that would take place between the two municipalities would necessarily be that cooperative… we want to make sure our interests are taken into considerations and we think the best way to do that is (for the Town) to have control over this area as well.”
Lee Halligan, Senior planner with the Town, said a full year’s worth of studying went into the current annexation boundaries, and the town will have to undergo a significant process to consider adjusting them.
“The town really wants to have a good look at all of the areas for which land owners have requested be included in annexation, and actually undertake a strategic review of all of those lands in order to determine whether it would be beneficial or not to bring those in or leave them out,” she said. “If we do want to bring those lands in there really has to be a good reason for it, so we're doing some research into the issues of serviceability, fragmentation, and things like that.”
Halligan said the 12 St. residents’ wish to be included to have more input in the process is one that makes sense.
“We actually have a document on our website that stakes out broadly the benefits of annexation… being able to really get involved with the decision making in terms for what happens with the rest of the town as well and being involved in all that,” she said. “You may have a piece of land being annexed next to you and you may want to have significant input into what occurs in the future on those lands and being in the town boundaries would give you a better opportunity to input into how those lands are developed.”
Yet, Halligan said if the lands aren’t determined to be valuable growth options, they may not be included.
“Significant environmental features (may) make them not very developable,” she said. “If there’s a big wet land in a quarter section it may be difficult to urbanize that land into the future so really developability of those lands and also the location in terms of infrastructure and transportation infrastructure.”
The strategic review will occur over the next two months and a report will come back to council on August 17 for a decision on whether to expand the intended annexation boundary. If town council approves the variation, additional consultation would be needed with residents and the MD of Foothills.
