The community advisory group that will assist Three Sisters Mountain Village and the Town of Canmore in creating an overarching plan for the final phases of development at the east end of the community has been named and a terms of reference document for the work on an area structure plan accepted by council.
But tight timeframes between the advisory group’s first meeting and acceptance of the terms of reference to develop an area structure plan with TSMV resulted in a number of concerns at council before it adjourned for a summer recess.
Development planner Tracy Woitenko explained to council the terms of reference (TOR) are the first part of the process when developing an area structure plan.
“When doing a new area structure plan you must get the terms of reference approved by council first and then that sets the scope of the ASP and the studies required,” she said. “This terms of reference was taken to the community advisory group that has been formed for the process at their first meeting that was last week.”
While terms of reference were given to the group and they were asked for comment, Woitenko noted there was only one week between that meeting and the one at which council was asked to approve the document. She said because July 7 is council’s last meeting before the summer recess, the TOR came sooner for approval.
“We would have liked to give them more time,” she said, adding that for work to continue over the summer with TSMV’s representatives, QuantumPlace Developments, the terms of reference need approval.
Councillors said feedback to council regarding the terms of reference is that the community advisory group has not had a chance to even see them at all.
“It was presented to the group, but I would not call that a review,” said Mayor John Borrowman. “My sense is that if we were not about to take a break for summer, we could take more time.”
Councillor Joanna McCallum said the optics of the timing, given the importance of the work being done by the community advisory group, are not ideal.
“If any concerns come out of that group, those changes can be made to the terms of reference at a later date,” she added.
Coun. Sean Krausert, who was appointed to the advisory group by council, said the first meeting went very well and he has been pleased so far with the process.
“I just want to put it out there that we are in a whole new world of how to deal with these things,” he said. “We have to try to not be in the old mindset of how we assess and what comes back from them. There really is a good group of people around the table, but more importantly, there is buy-in from administration and, more importantly, the landowners.”
In addition to Krausert and the mayor, community advisory group members are Canmore Business and Tourism CEO Andrew Nickerson, TSMV representative Chris Ollenberger, Wanda Bogdane and Ken Davies, who are recreation representatives, former Y2Y executive director Karsten Heuer, Kayla Conner and Pat Kamenka and Paul Lessard, who represent TSMV representatives.
Two other important issues came up in the discussion – the delineation of wildlife corridors for the area under consideration and the fact the municipality is currently working on rewriting its municipal development plan, which is its ultimate planning document.
Borrowman said the transition from the current 1998 MDP to a new one creates a grey area because the TSMV ASP will have to align with it.
As to wildlife corridors, Woitenko put forward an amendment for council to consider that specifically sets out that while the province has the authority to approve wildlife corridors, the very first issue to be determined are the boundaries for that corridor and that discussion will involve the Town of Canmore as part of the collaborative ASP process.
“Delineation and protection of the wildlife corridors will be determined in the early stages of the ASP process and will help set the discussion for the development area boundary,” states the terms of reference. “Development considerations adjacent to the established wildlife corridors will be further addressed through the environmental study and the collaborative ASP process.”
The terms of reference also cover the ASP process, vision and guiding principles, plan area and purpose, policy framework, technical studies and scope as well as community engagement.
