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Town councillor wants growth vote delayed

Status quo, or grow – that is what one Okotoks councillor would like residents to choose from for Okotoks’ future, but he’s hoping to put the decision off until the end of the year.
Coun. Laurie Hodson
Coun. Laurie Hodson

Status quo, or grow – that is what one Okotoks councillor would like residents to choose from for Okotoks’ future, but he’s hoping to put the decision off until the end of the year.

Town council is scheduled to make a decision on the fate of Okotoks’ growth cap on June 25 and whether the Town will move forward on a proposal to annex enough land for 30 years of growth.

Coun. Laurie Hodson introduced a notice of motion last week asking town council to postpone the decision until November or later. He’s asking council to vote on his motion to postpone the decision on May 14.

He said the timeframe is too tight to get all the information councilors and residents need to make the decision.

“We’re going to be hard pressed to get this exercise completed by June 25,” said Hodson.

He said residents deserve to know all the implications of growth, including costs, land needed for new development and water sources before a decision is made.

Hodson doesn’t think there is enough time between now and June 25 to gather all this information.

“I want our residents to be informed,” he said. “What are the costs associated with either option? What are the costs our community is facing? What are the costs associated were we to bring in a pipeline? What are the costs were we to adopt another source of water?”

When council votes on the issue, he said the choice should either be to hold on to 30,000 status quo or abandon it and follow a long-term growth scenario for up to 60 years into the future.

When town council last revisited the growth issue in 2009, it looked at three options: status quo, a moderate growth scenario of around 45,000 people or full growth to 60,000 people or more.

Hodson doesn’t want the list of potential options to include a moderate growth scenario this time.

“I think the in between just confuses people,” he said.

Coun. Matt Rockley supports Hodson’s motion to only have two choices, however, he opposes putting off the June 25 decision.

“There’s really no need to delay until November, it’s just a delay tactic,” he said.

Rockley said the Town is going ahead with a public consultation in the next two months and putting together the information council will need to make a decision on growth on June 25 and more detailed work can go ahead if council chooses to drop the population cap.

“We’ll have the fundamentals in place to make the initial decision,” he said.

Rockley said the Town could end up facing the same decision it is facing today if a moderate growth scenario is set.

“Potentially we could build the infrastructure to hit that target of 45,000 and when we get to that spot we’re in the same position we’re in now and we may need to rebuild infrastructure to accommodate more growth demand at that time,” he said.

If the cap is lifted, Rockley expects the Town could continue to see the high growth rate it has seen for the past decade.

“When I think of the last 22 years since I’ve been here the town was just slightly over 5,000 people 22 years ago and now the last census was 24,500,” he said. “That’s going over the last 20 years and the Alberta economy is still looking strong for the foreseeable future.”

The Town will be holding the first of a series of public events on May 8 at 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and May 12 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Foothills Centennial Centre. People are asked to RSVP on the Town’s website at www.okotoks.ca by Friday, May 4.

A household survey on the growth question will go out to all homes in Okotoks as part of the Town’s municipal census at the end of this month.

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