The draft of Canmore’s proposed Municipal Development Plan has important implications when it comes to how, where and when the community will grow in the future.
While many long-term locals have considered the growth cap number to be 30,000 due to work done in the mid-90s on the issue, the new MDP moves away from establishing a population cap and instead focuses on the urban growth boundary.
Manager of planning Alaric Fish said growth management is one of the first sections in the land use planning document because it is directly related to the community’s vision of the future and must be strategically guided.
“Living within our means and our limits has long been a key pillar of the Canmore community, so to respect that by putting the growth management chapter at the front of the document sets the context,” Fish said.
The measures restricting future growth include the urban growth boundary and growth phasing, as well as through qualitative approaches like urban design guidelines, mix of land uses and scale of development.
The goals of the section are to accommodate growth within the urban boundary; manage growth at a level that can be integrated into and sustained by the Town’s social and physical infrastructure; retain and enhance the character of the community through growth management strategies and work with present opportunities and challenges to create responsible and sustainable future urban growth.
Fish said that since the 30,000 growth cap was set out through a growth management process in the ’90s, which was a watershed moment for community engagement, the makeup of households has changed, as well as the fact that Canmore has a significant semi-permanent resident population.
“When you have a number of 30,000, what is in that is unclear,” he said. “We have gone away from a specific number and so instead we are focusing on the areas that have planning decisions related to them and inherent in that is a number. But what that number exactly is will depend on the density of development, the number of residential versus non-residential and owner composition.”
What is developed becomes as significant as when development occurs and policies in the MDP deal with the quantitative aspects of growth management.
Development planner Tracey Woitenko said the community tends to be more conscious of what is being developed and how it fits into a neighbourhood or the overall community, rather than a population number.
“We are trying to elevate the conversation into really looking at all the community impacts, not just the numbers of people,” she said.
“We can’t say that change is never going to happen, but what we would like to do is manage that change in a way that is good for the community and recognize decisions will be made by the council of the day.”
While new development is addressed in the section of the MDP, infill and redevelopment is also addressed, including under what terms that happens. Fish said the plan acknowledges that it should only happen where there is a broad community benefit.
Administration has scheduled three open houses throughout September as opportunities for the public to provide feedback, including on Sept. 8 from 5-7 p.m. at the Civic Centre and Sept. 12 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Elevation Place.
Because one of the biggest changes to the MDP is a section dealing with developing near steep creeks, an open house on that specific area is scheduled for Sept. 16 from 5-8 p.m. at the Civic Centre.
Go to www.canmore.ca/mdp for more information and to download a copy of the document.
