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'Netook is dead' under proposed MDP densities

ìIf this goes through, Netook is dead,î developer Herb Styles said last Wednesday in response to Mountain View County's draft Municipal Development Plan, posted the previous day on the county website.

ìIf this goes through, Netook is dead,î developer Herb Styles said last Wednesday in response to Mountain View County's draft Municipal Development Plan, posted the previous day on the county website.ìIt's a slap in the face for taxpayers and taxpayers have been fed a bill of goods,î Styles told the Gazette.ìThey get to have higher taxes and no further subdivisions. Beware of where your property rights are going,î he warned.The draft plan reduces residential density within growth centres from the current 240 lots per quarter (with density bonusing) to a maximum of 48 lots while increasing the minimum parcel size from one-quarter acre to two acres.Those changes would effectively kill the Netook Crossing North concept plan east of Olds, which proposes 431 residential lots on 287 acres and quarter-acre lot sizes.ìNetook was created to preserve farmland (with) smaller lots in accordance with provincial guidelines for nodal development,î Styles said. ìIf you go from quarter-acre to two-acre lots, obviously you destroy that whole concept.îStyles reiterated points he has made in recent appearances before council and letters to the editor in the Gazette: that Netook Crossing was conceived by the county ñ ìwe simply responded to an invitation to developersî ñ as a way of offsetting declining oil and gas tax revenue.ìSo taxpayers beware,î he said. ìYou're about to have your taxes increase by three times today's rate in the next eight or nine years.îThe draft plan would also remove all references to municipal/communal piped services ñ a key component of the Netook concept ñ and replace them with ìsafeî water and wastewater systems that meet county and Alberta Environment standards.ìThat means we have to get approved wells and septic systems. Even if we could somehow make that work, they'd devalue our land dramatically,î Styles said.ìWhat about property rights? In 40 years I've never heard of a county downgrading land that's already been purchased.îAnd without piped services, he added, the potential tax revenue from commercial developments on both sides of Highway 27 will be significantly reduced.But county interim planning director John Rusling said Thursday that the proposed change in wording on water and wastewater systems doesn't rule out municipal/communal piped services.ìThey just don't have the same priority they had in the old document,î Rusling said.Other key changes in the draft MDP that Styles said could individually derail the project ñ limiting residential development to first parcel out on productive farmland and allowing multi-lot subdivision only if the landowner has held title to the quarter section for at least 10 years ñ would not apply to Netook Crossing, as it is situated within a growth centre, Rusling said.Rusling noted that Styles and other landowners will have the opportunity to express their concerns about the draft document at the MDP open houses being held during the next two weeks.The Netook Crossing landowners were scheduled to host an information session yesterday evening at the Olds Highland Golf Course clubhouse and Styles said they will have representation at all four of the MDP open houses, starting tonight (Tuesday) in Sundre.

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