My local rural county is in the process of bringing in a new municipal developement plan. We are not really sure why....probably too many people sitting around with nothing to do!
The "first parcel out" practice has been to always allow one acreage out of every quarter section, but now they want to limit that to only "developed farmsteads" and they want to limit it to 3 acres.
First they tried to sell it as the old "save the farmland" but that didn't go over too good as the city of Red Deer continues to strip off 3-4 feet of black dirt on the best land in the county to build more housing. Pretty hard to convince the guy with a rocky old hill that he needs to do his part to save agriculture!
My councillor told me the added costs of extra grading and snowplowing to acreage owners, was just to much for the taxpayers to bare.....I told him well, you could just tell them to go to hell ,like you do the rest of us when we bitch about the roads!
The bottom line here is with a stroke of a pen the municipality will devalue property......without any compensation or access to challenge decisions in court? I have no problem if they want to pretend they are "saving the farmland" or "saving taxpayers dollars"....just pay me the difference for what they are taking away through the new regulations?
About $150,000/quarter.
When the county needs land for a road or a school or whatever, they can expropriate and the landowner is compensated and has the right to challenge that compensation in court? Not so when they "partially expropriate" through dreamed up regulations?
This sort of garbage goes on all the time in Alberta.
(As an aside most of the councillors already subdivided their own first parcel out!)
The "first parcel out" practice has been to always allow one acreage out of every quarter section, but now they want to limit that to only "developed farmsteads" and they want to limit it to 3 acres.
First they tried to sell it as the old "save the farmland" but that didn't go over too good as the city of Red Deer continues to strip off 3-4 feet of black dirt on the best land in the county to build more housing. Pretty hard to convince the guy with a rocky old hill that he needs to do his part to save agriculture!
My councillor told me the added costs of extra grading and snowplowing to acreage owners, was just to much for the taxpayers to bare.....I told him well, you could just tell them to go to hell ,like you do the rest of us when we bitch about the roads!
The bottom line here is with a stroke of a pen the municipality will devalue property......without any compensation or access to challenge decisions in court? I have no problem if they want to pretend they are "saving the farmland" or "saving taxpayers dollars"....just pay me the difference for what they are taking away through the new regulations?
About $150,000/quarter.
When the county needs land for a road or a school or whatever, they can expropriate and the landowner is compensated and has the right to challenge that compensation in court? Not so when they "partially expropriate" through dreamed up regulations?
This sort of garbage goes on all the time in Alberta.
(As an aside most of the councillors already subdivided their own first parcel out!)
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