The Glenbow Ranch Area Structure Plan should not proceed at this time.
Reasons:
The South Saskatchewan River basin has been closed since 2006. Until this document has written proof of water for 15,000 people, plus commercial uses, it will have no standing.
To give this document approval will drive the price of land up. Rocky View County (RVC) is a rural municipality with an agricultural strategy – so – driving the land price up pushes out the farmers and ranchers, against policy. That would also reduce the provision of ecological goods and services as well as local food production.
Highway 1A is a single digit provincial road. The province does not have any changes to this road budgeted within the next 30 years. How can this document even contemplate multiple sets of lights then?
Included in the current BearspPaw Area Structure Plan is the correct map showing the aggregate deposits. This document has (deliberately?) left out all the deposits on their lands. The aggregate resource plan needs to be finished before this ASP.
Inter-municipal agreements with both Cochrane and Calgary should be completed first for a document of this magnitude. Otherwise it will cost all the taxpayers thousands of dollars, for RVC staff and lawyer time for years to come.
There is no Order in Council for Transferrable Development Credits. Until that time this document will not have legal standing.
There is word that this document has used Glenbow Park Foundation money, which was directed for use in maintenance of the park itself. Since the agreement between RVC and the newly formed Glenbow Crossroads LP is not available to the public, this potential misuse of funds needs to be clarified ASAP.
With my list of just seven high-level items – and who knows how many more by others – I recommend this document be set aside until all outstanding issues are addressed.
Respectful of correct process,
Gloria Wilkinson
