Town, County to host IDP, ICF information session
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Town of Strathmore and Wheatland County have announced the draft of their Intermunicipal Development Plan (IDP) is ready for review.
Strathmore and Wheatland County began their collaborative process to develop the IDP in the fall of 2023. The goal being to strengthen the partnership between the two municipalities.
“We started off working council to council on the IDP and Intermunicipal Collaboration Framework (ICF) planning, and then it kind of evolved in a better way to have the two municipalities’ administrations work towards it. They have the most experience and knowledge,” said Strathmore Mayor Pat Fule. “They have been working on it and then they bring it to the two councils in draft form and then we basically decide if we are ready to approve it.”
The Municipal Government Act (MGA) requires each municipality in a given region that shares common boundaries to develop and adopt an IDP. This is then used to facilitate and sustain long-term strategic growth, as well as to identify joint development opportunities within the area of interest to the town and county.
A release dated June 12 announced the town and county will be hosting a joint community information session regarding the draft of the IDP on June 18.
This event is scheduled to take place from 5 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the Strathmore Civic Center in its east hall.
The information session is a drop-in type event which, according to the release, aims to serve as an opportunity for plan area residents, interested and affected parties, businesses, and the greater local community to review the draft, share feedback and ask questions about the IDP.
“The IDP basically looks at the future land use within an area, so what we did with the county is, we worked on creating the boundary around the town that would be part of the IDP,” said Fule. “The two municipalities worked together to come up with a zone around the town boundaries that would look at future land use within that area, and then it would look at different matters and proposals for future development in the area, and then it would also look at possible transportation systems for the area, as well as the coordination of intermunicipal programs that deal with (socio-economic) issues.”
Fule added there have been ongoing challenges regarding collaboration between the town and the county, which lead to delegating the IDP draft to their respective administrations.
Also outlined in the IDP, are procedures for attempting to resolve potential conflicts between municipalities.
Information gathered at the June 18 session will be used to further refine and finalize the IDP document, which will then be returned before both councils during respective public hearings to consider adoption.
More information about the IDP/ICF framework is available via both the town and county websites.