Canmore's New Community Sustainability Plan

Less Room To Grow

Posted By Hamish MacLean/hamish@canmoreleader.com


It took nearly 40 amendments to the 57th draft version of the Community Sustainability Plan, but when it passed second reading in Canmore’s council chambers, the plan saw one major revision.

It took nearly five hours of discussion and debate before council passed second reading for the plan that will turn Canmore’s values into policy, but the last amendment to the document saw the urban growth boundary shrink dramatically.

At the Tuesday meeting, council called for a public hearing prior to third reading of the document that has already seen approximately 3,100 hours of volunteer time in its creation.

The roughly 700 acres (283 hectares) where Three Sisters Mountain Village (before going into receivership Feb. 27) had recently proposed to build low-density, large tourist homes, will now be drawn into the plan as an Environmentally Sensitive Area.

Sites 7, 8 and 9 — the area east of the Stewart Creek wildlife corridor — will remain a protected environmental area unless there are extensive public consultations and a binding plebiscite to change the designation, according to the new plan.

Mayor Ron Casey, who brought forward the amendment, read from a 1992 Natural Resources Conservation Board decision as well as the Three Sisters1998 Master Plan when justifying the move to redraw the plan’s maps.

“This comes down to what the town thought they were getting into in 1992, it also comes down to what the province thought they were getting into in 1992,” he said. The plan was to build a resort, he said, bringing jobs and economic sustainability to the town.

“We had worked along that route close to 1998 with the understanding that something would happen — the truth is, nothing happened,” he said.

Casey said the move was an effort to be “as straight forward with Three Sisters, or the receiver, as possible.

“It doesn’t take away their right to do something down the road,” Casey said. “It just means they have to work really hard to come up with something that works for everybody.”

The council passed the amendment and then the amended version of the Community Sustainability Plan unanimously. However, there were a few points of contention along the way.

Coun. Ed Russell led a failed attempt to remove maximum, as well as minimum, parking limits for new businesses. Coun. Shane Jonker tried unsuccessfully to remove the possibility of residential zoning in industrial areas. And council voted unanimously to include in the plan direction for administration to move forward on an Area Redevelopment Plan for the Bow Valley Trail district.