There wasn’t much debate by council at its most recent Sustainability Screening Report meeting, Tuesday (Feb. 8).
Local politicians accepted an SSR by Dr. Duncan Brown and Canmore Ranch Developments to rezone his lands adjacent to Policeman’s Creek and Spring Creek Mountain Village without any debate.
The only thing expressed by council was thanks by Mayor Ron Casey to everyone present for making the SSR a successful and informal informative process.
The proposal before council included a contribution of land located in a habitat patch to permanent environmental protection.
Ralf Southwell with Southwell Planning presented the application, adding it would also allow for the development of several new residential lots on the east portion of the site.
“This is a sort of quasi-infill development because the land is urban reserve,” he said.
Of the 4.49 hectares of land owned by Brown, 1.3 hectares on the west side of the creek would eventually be given permanent protection for conservation purposes.
In addition, said Southwell, the creek would have the same 20-metre setback as throughout SCMV.
In fact, while the SSR was related only to land use and a rezoning of the property from urban reserve to residential, future development applications for the site will closely involve SCMV.
Developer Frank Kernick said he has been working with Brown for the last few years on combining their adjacent lands on the east side of the creek to create contiguous development in the area.
“This is still a long ways away,” Kernick said. “We would be looking to combine our lands to do something jointly to make a more efficient use of the land.”
The two pieces of property, he said, are inefficient to use in their current shape, but putting them together would change that.
In addition, the proposal would see SCMV share services and an access road with the rezoned land.
The result for the access road is that Brown will no longer need to share access across the CP Rail crossing with the municipality near the wastewater treatment plant.
