MUNICIPAL DISTRICT OF BIGHORN – An amendment to the Municipal District of Bighorn’s land use bylaw was approved that will bring in new parking requirements for resort, visitor, flexible and extended visitor accommodations.
Bighorn council unanimously passed the changes, which will see the requirements increase the number of stalls for those types of units.
The previous requirement had one stall per accommodation. The changes will see one stall required for a one-bedroom accommodation unit and for each additional bedroom, half a stall is added to the requirements.
Reeve Lisa Rosvold brought up two letters during the public hearing that questioned the half a stall requirement.
“We heard comments regarding people being supportive of these adjustments, but we heard comments from people questioning the half car,” Rosvold said. “Does administration have any comments around those half stalls and how they would work?”
Peter Scholz, director of planning services, said in the case of half a stall, the MD will round up.
“If the total for a building comes to 93.5 stalls, it would be rounded up to 94,” Scholz said. “This is taken as an average. It is the number of parking requirements based on experience. … In planning practice, we try to find a balance between too much and too little parking.”
After passing first reading on the land use bylaw parking requirement amendment for resort, visitor and extended visitor accommodations on June 14, the MD of Bighorn held a public hearing on July 12.
At the public hearing, the MD received one presentation and six letters regarding the proposed bylaw. Four letters, including one from the Dead Man’s Flats Community Association, were in favour of the amendments.
Bighorn council first asked in April for information to be brought back to council on the parking requirements in the highway commercial and mixed-use commercial districts.
The finance and economic development committee reviewed and recommended the draft bylaw in the spring.
The land use districts that are impacted are Rafter Six Tourist and Recreation District, Kananaskis Ranch District, the highway commercial districts in Scott Lake, Dead Man’s Flats and Harvie Heights and the Dead Man’s Flats commercial mixed-use district.
Coun. Joss Elford asked if applications that had already been submitted or approved, but in which work had not been done on the development, would be grandfathered in.
Scholz replied that those applications would be grandfathered in regarding the new parking requirements.
“The proposed parking requirements reflect real-world experience for parking requirements for the affected four types of land uses,” the report stated.
“Approval of [the bylaw] will ensure that all developers will have both a level playing field and help ensure appropriate amounts of parking for new developments.”
