Bowden mayor Robb Stuart is confident a new system whereby Red Deer County staff handle planning services for the town will work out well for the town and the county.
As reported earlier by the Albertan, under the 10-year deal, essentially, Red Deer County staff will provide planning services at no cost to the town. They'll cover their costs via increased fees to town citizens for services like building permits.
The new system took effect Jan. 1 after being ratified by both town council and Red Deer County officials.
“(Outgoing chief administrative officer) Andy (Weiss) was doing 95 per cent of that other than the safety codes,” Stuart says.
“They have that whole staff that's available so I think it'll tighten things up a lot; not that we think that there was anything really going wrong with that but it just frees up manpower for our new CAO, whoever that may be. We don't really need that development aspect of the job/portfolio right now.”
Stuart says the town will still have the final say on planning matters via its Municipal Planning Commission.
“The Municipal Planning Commission is still the ultimate authority, so we're in control of our own destiny, but we have a huge resource there that'll supply us information,” he says.
“Mainly it was Andy's time,” Stuart says. “We had another office staff that was his backup and she would go out and inspect the property and make notes about development. So that just frees up a ton of town time.”
Stuart compares the arrangement to the decision years ago to have the town's fire department come under the auspices of Red Deer County, which he says has worked out well for the town and the county.
“(It's) just like when they kind of more or less took over control of the fire department. The training improved vastly and saved the town quite a bit of money,” he says.
“We're still in charge of the fire hall; any repairs or maintenance to it comes from the town. And the county was supplying all the equipment anyway pretty well.”
"(It's) just like when they kind of more or less took over control of the fire department. The training improved vastly and saved the town quite a bit of money." ROBB STUARTMAYOR OF BOWDEN
