Canmore’s guiding policy document, the Municipal Development Plan, dates back to 1998 and Town planners are hard at work this year in an effort to update and rewrite it.
With that in mind, the municipality is taking a phased approach to roll out issues that affect the community and garner feedback from residents to incorporate into the plan.
Planner Tracy Woitenko said the Town is looking at some of the big ticket issues it feels need to be discussed before rewriting the policy document.
“We have chosen, so far, four main issues to address. The first one is affordable housing; how can we make Canmore more affordable? The second one is community character, the third is living and growing with wildlife and the fourth is economic development,” she said.
So far, affordable housing and community character have had an online discussion forum created on the town’s website for community feedback. Woitenko said the intent is to have all discussions open for comment throughout the process, but because of a website issue, the affordable housing discussion may not be accessible until early next week.
She added when it comes to affordable housing, there are some things the Town can do to address the issue, “but we would like some solutions as well, so we are generally looking for public input on it.”
Because the MDP guides land use, she said the conversation might include things like secondary suites, employee housing, perpetually affordable housing and density.
“The Municipal Development Plan is our main guiding document for land use and development in a municpality and it provides the main direction, the intent behind our day-to-day policies,” Woitenko said.
The second issue, currently on the website for discussion, is community character, how to create sense of place.
“One of the important questions we are asking people about community character is what do you love about Canmore and how can we continue to provide those things through growth and change?” she said.
That includes things like architectural design guidelines, density, gathering spaces, parks, recreation and public art, to name a few. It can also include when and where to have street closures and special events.
Go to www.canmore.ca/mdp/ for more information or to join the discussion. With each issue, Woitenko added she will be at the Mountain Market and residents can provide feedback or ask questions. She will be there this Thursday (Aug. 14) to discuss community character.
