DIDSBURY - At the regular meeting on Jan. 10, council defeated a land use bylaw amendment (Bylaw 2017-01) for property at 3001 23rd St. in Didsbury.
The bylaw would have redesignated 19.06 acres from the existing zoning of light industrial to heavy industrial. The owner was hoping for the redesignation before applying to subdivide the property into three lots and sell two on the newly created lots.
Before voting, Coun. Joyce McCoy questioned how council could endorse the amendment after rejecting a similar decision previously.
"This adjoins Shantz Village," McCoy said. "We denied it for fear it would affect the residents on the north side. Now we're going to allow it to happen across the train tracks from a development that might house up to 100 people?"
Christofer Atchison, manager of legislative and development services, told council that the municipal development plan allocates the northwest quadrant of the town as industrial.
In other council news, council unanimously agreed to first reading of a bylaw to renew the ATCO gas franchise agreement.
"The purpose of the bylaw is to authorize the mayor and the CAO to enter into the ATCO gas franchise agreement," said Atchison.
"In order for that bylaw to eventually gain approval it has to go through a public process where people can make comments about their utilities commission and it also has to receive the Alberta Utilities approval before coming back for approval. So you could see some time before you see the file returned."
Council received a request from Alberta Health Services (AHS) to dedicate the south side of 21st Avenue east of 14th Street as a fire lane to disallow parking in the area.
Regarding the street, AHS stated that access to the property for delivery trucks and efficient snow removal is difficult when vehicles are parked on the roadway.
The report was accepted as information only.
Council also approved the revised membership agreement and waste services agreement with Mountain View Regional Waste Management Commission.
Before approving the motion, council had to rescind an earlier agreement from Dec. 31, 2015.
The membership agreement lays out the terms for how each of the members of the commission are planning to work together and the obligations that each member has to one another and to the commission.
The Waste Services Agreement depicts the obligations that the commission has to the Town of Didsbury and the services that they will carry out directly for the Town of Didsbury.
Council voted to approve leave for Coun. Gail Nowlan until her return on Feb. 1.
