FORMERLY THE ROCKY VIEW FIVE VILLAGE WEEKLY
Volume 35, Number 27	OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER FOR THE MD OF ROCKY VIEW #44	Tuesday, July 1, 2008
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Neighbourhoods to sprout under new plans
Enrique Massot

MD of Rocky View councillors sitting as committee members have given the green light to municipal planners to draft policies replacing area structure plans with new instruments called neighbourhood area plans.

At its regular meeting of June 17, the public services committee was presented an overview of the proposed new planning policies.

"This is a tool for the growth management strategy," said director of Planning and Community Services Lorie Pesowski.

Planners told council that neighbourhood area structure plans would introduce a more prescriptive approach to guiding future development.

They pointed out that Rocky View’s area structure plans provide long-term general guidance over wide areas but lack detailed direction to developers.

Planners noted that variances in the way Rocky View applies area plans and conceptual schemes is causing public confusion and alarming neighbouring jurisdictions.

"This anxiety is compounded by the fact that the combined land area within the ASPs of Rocky View is roughly equivalent to the land area within the boundaries of the City of Calgary," the report stated.

The neighbourhood plans, in contrast, would establish criteria for all the significant elements of a subdivision to be developed over a two to five-year period, including a servicing strategy.

By focusing on neighbourhoods, plans would be easier for the public to understand, the planners noted.

The neighbourhood plans could describe land uses such as commercial, residential or institutional, as well as proposed intensities such as single detached residences, townhouses or low rise apartments.

Small centres with shops on the ground floor and offices or residences above as well as residential areas surrounding a main street could be included, as well as three to four-storey apartments and condominiums.

Planners noted that neighbourhood plans could also include details of integrated trail systems connecting parks, schools and natural areas.

Larger plans called community development strategies would encompass wider planning areas along the lines of watersheds and defining areas such as agricultural districts, conservation corridors, population centres and regional trail networks.

Developers would produce smaller scale, more detailed site development frameworks that would provide detail at the block level.

Such plans, planners wrote, could be used to guide development on parcels as small as acreages or as large as farms.

Coun. Mitch Yurchak asked whether the new planning instruments would include provisions for community advisory groups.

Pesowski said it was too early to predict whether such groups could be accommodated, however community input will happen at every stage of planning.

Planners told councillors that the new system would allow the MD to respond to the new provincial land use framework and a regional land use plan to be set by the Calgary Regional Partnership.