County Committee of the Whole votes to approve draft of IDP

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

During the Nov. 26 Wheatland County Committee of the Whole meeting, information was presented about an update on the Intermunicipal Development Plan (IDP) with the Town of Strathmore.

Wheatland County held a public hearing, Oct. 1, regarding the IDP, at which time a number of amendments were proposed for the document.

Another public hearing was hosted in Strathmore, Oct. 2, during which the town’s council approved first reading as originally presented. The town did not approve the document with the proposed amendments, as they did not feel they had adequate time to review them prior to the public hearing. 

A memo which was provided to the county, Oct. 18, noted Strathmore agreed with the majority of the amendments, with one exception. 

Policy 2.4.1 within the IDP was suggested by the county to read as: “Future commercial and industrial development on lands not within the Town’s Municipal Boundary, should be directed to those areas identified as Future Business Area in the Future Development Scenario.”

In this instance, the county suggested for the word “should” to replace “shall.” The town disagreed with this amendment, suggesting it remain as originally worded. 

The town also suggested the addition of a Policy 2.4.2, being “Notwithstanding Policy 2.4.1, lands within existing approved Area Structure Plans shall be allowed to develop in accordance with those plans, as amended from time to time, so long as that development is consistent with the direction and intent of this IDP.”

Throughout the document, “Shall” is defined as policies that are mandatory and must be complied with, while “Should” refers to policies being those that both municipalities encourage and compliance with the principle is required, but the method and level of compliance is subject to the discretion of the applicable approving authority.

The document contains several figures outlining future urban sprawl around Strathmore, as well as estimated growth numbers and use cases. Land use between Strathmore and Wheatland County is broken down throughout the policy.

Also presented are three different population growth scenarios and how those may influence future land use and expansion throughout the next 50 years.

As the Town of Strathmore’s final public hearing of the year is scheduled for Dec. 4, an impetus was established to the committee to have the currently proposed edition of the draft to be ready for the town’s review prior to that meeting.

The Committee of the Whole voted unanimously to accept the presented draft of the IDP as information.