Badlands Motorsport Resort jumps another hurdle

Times Contributor

 

Reeve Glenn Koester attended Kneehill County on June 25, to hear the council pass the third reading of approval for the Badlands Motorsport Resort ASP. He said that the vote was split four in support to three against. Koester said that audience members were not encouraged to speak at this meeting.

“There was a lot of anxiety on this for sure,” said Koester. 

Koester said Kneehill County did not ask for any further studies on the project nor did they address the inconsistency of the project with their Municipal Development Plan (MDP). Amendments to the MDP will be discussed in Kneehill Council on July 16. Wheatland council’s concerns were not discussed either. 

Koester was at a loss as to why their decision making process was so different from Wheatland County proceedings. He recapped the issues of concern, including the road widening on Wheatland County accesses. Wheatland Council approved a motion for staff to draft a letter asking Kneehill County Council representatives to meet with Wheatland County council, to draft an Inter-municipal Development Plan (IDP).

“The roads will need serious money to redevelop,” said Koester. “All in all, things seem to have gone downhill and it gives me cause for concern.”

He suggested to Council that it was time to formally ask Kneehill County for an IDP, and Councillor Ben Armstrong suggested an IDP might be useful for situations arising in the future. 

The Badlands Motorsport Resort project comes back to Kneehill council in December, when a re-designation bylaw will be drafted for the land. Koester said that area residents were meeting on July 3, in Rosebud, to discuss if any actions can be taken to save the property from development.

Under Division Three of the Municipal Government Act, a person can apply to the Court of Queen’s Bench for an order requiring a council to amend or repeal a bylaw, by a vote of its electors. There must be a registered system of signatures from 10 per cent of the municipalities qualified voting residents, which for Kneehill County would be about 522, on a legal petition to have the judge consider requiring council to amend or repeal the bylaw. The action has to be completed and filed within 60 days of the passing of the bylaw.

The area for the proposed track is also a national environmentally sensitive area. Environment Canada has been notified of the plans for the site. 

Koester said that he had been in Rosebud for the Rosebud School of the Arts celebrations and met with MLA Jason Hale and MP Kevin Sorenson. They toured the site only to find that with recent rains the area was flooded out. He did not know how that may impact the sensitive species at the site, require Environment Canada to do an impact study, or shift the developer’s plans in any way for the area.