BOWDEN — Council plans to hold a public hearing – likely near the end of May – to get public input on proposed changes to the town’s land use bylaw.
Over the last while, council, with help from administrative staff, has tentatively made a string of amendments to the bylaw which covers a wide variety of rules on how land is utilized in town.
During an interview, mayor Robb Stuart said to his recollection, the bylaw was written in about 2012 “and it's been amended about four times since.”
Some changes have been spurred by recent commercial development in the town.
Also over the past few years, council has been a bit remiss in making changes to the bylaw to update it, so this is a chance to update it fully.
“The recommendation from administration was that rather than do 72 amendments, we might as well just redo the whole bylaw and then we have a new bylaw,” he said.
“We’ve been bad – I hate to say that – but we did three or four (changes) every year for a couple of years and then we kind of quit doing it and now we’re catching up again. And the land use bylaw’s a big bylaw.”
Stuart wondered if COVID-19 requirements to wear masks in public might be lifted by the time the public hearing is held.
If those requirements remain in place, the hearing may end up being held by Zoom, but Stuart is hopeful that won’t be the case because if so, the town may need some advice or assistance from other communities that have conducted hearings that way.
When pandemic restrictions began, council held several meetings via Zoom but found them cumbersome.
Now, a few councillors and chief administrative officer Greg Skotheim participate in the meetings (socially distanced) in council chambers. Other councillors and any other interested parties participate by Zoom.
Stuart worries that if they hold a public hearing that way "you might have to have 20 screens up.”
“If we have to, we have to. I know other towns are doing it, so we could get input from them. Olds and Mountain View County (have) had a couple of public hearings,” he said.
"If anybody’s interested, then they (can) let us know and we can make arrangements.”
