County Council Review
Amy Gregson – Times Reporter
Planning Moratorium
The number of applications Wheatland County is seeing for multiple developments or sub-divisions on quarter lands has caused the council to pass a planning moratorium for these types of applications.
A moratorium is a legally authorized postponement and is being put in place until the Growth Management Study that the County has commissioned is completed.
“We [Wheatland County] under the municipal act can’t refuse an application but we can advise them it’s healthier if they wait until we have our growth study in, review it, and if we have to make any changes to our land-use by-law than we’ll do it at that time,” said Reeve Ben Armstrong.
When putting in an application for land development, people have to put forth money when applying. The county is also giving people forewarning that applications may not be looked at until the Growth Management Study is complete.
Council is looking for a way to deal with the growth and development that is happening within the County’s borders.
The Growth Management Study the County is completing will look at all of this and hopefully determine which areas can handle reasonable growth and which areas can’t.
“There’s nothing wrong with the development just when it develops it has to be in an orderly fashion,” said Armstrong. “We need to know if there’s any environment issues and any detrimental effects.”
The County will still consider first-parcels out and farmstead separation that are located on a full quarter.
“We’re not saying we’ll approve it, but we’ll consider it,” said Armstrong.
Development will still be allowed within the boundaries of hamlets because they are considered growth areas.
Move-On-Dwellings
An idea was brought up by Councilor Glen Koester that Wheatland County review how they handle requests for move-on-dwellings.
Currently, the decision is that if someone can put a move-on-dwelling on his or her property, it is discretionary and must be approved by the County’s planning board.
The planning board only meets once a month and in January there wasn’t even a meeting.
“If someone wants to move a house on they have to put in the permit and wait for this meeting,” said Koester. “It’s such a long time frame, and when they go back to put a deposit [down] on the house, the house may be gone.”
Koester wants keep the process discretionary, but wants to look at how it can be expedited.
“It’s just too long of a time frame. If we can cut it down to a week or something then you would feel secure in putting a deposit down,” said Koester. “You don’t want to put a deposit down and lose it because it was too long of a waiting time.”
The county decided to investigate their current policy in regards to move-on-dwellings.
Fire Ban Signs
Wheatland County is in the process of getting fire ban signs ready to be placed throughout the County during the springtime.
The County is putting the signs in to create more awareness of whether there is a fire ban in place or not.
“Right now, it goes on the radio, it goes in the newspaper and sometimes that message isn’t getting out quick enough,” said Gerald Skibinsky, Manager of Protective Services.
He said the signs will also help those who are coming into the County, who are going camping, to be aware of a potential ban.
The nine fire departments will each have two fire ban signs that will be placed in their district and will be the ones responsible for taking care of the signs.
“It’s going to be another means of communication that’s out there,” said Skibinsky. “So whether your visiting or a resident of Wheatland County it might be a quicker notification method of getting the information out there.”
amy@strathmoretimes.com