Annexation Pressure

[cakadu]

It's hard to say just how tough the new council is going to be on keeping agricultural land intact. With a couple of new faces on the council and without the benefit of the information that the councillors receive when making a decision, it is too early to make any kind of judgement to that effect.

Add to that the conflicting recommendations from both the Reeves Task Force and the Ag Viability Study and who knows where we are going to end up.

I agree that it has to happen with minimal impact and/or negative affect. Whether you go east or west of the highway #2 corridor, I think that eventually there will be development creeping further and further out. How quickly and what kind of development is anyone's guess at this point in time.

[cowman]

Funny that you should mention the Reeves task force and the agricultural viability study and how they are not in agreement...at all!
You will note that the Reeves task force was the opinion of the people, while the ag land use study was a paid for thing by an expert? Now who do you listen to in a democracy? Do you go with the people or do you go with the paid planner?
The session, of the Reeves task force, that I attended showed very clearly what the people wanted. At the end of the meeting this guy stood up and said "Who wants to keep our right to First Parcel Out?" All the hands went up except for a couple of Dutch farmers and one councillor!
Kind of makes you wonder if the powers that be at the county and especially the planners understand who they are working for? If they want to change these sort of rules where peoples assets are going to be wiped out because of some bucolic fantasy, then I would suggest we need to consider whether we actually live in a democracy?
The other thing I would question is who are we saving all this valuable agricultural land for? It isn't for the most part the people who are the present day aging farm population! Their kids already know that ag is a loser and have moved on. So I guess it must be for the wealthy European farmers who are moving in? I guess they have pretty well polluted their own soil with manure so they need a fresh place to start all over again. I wonder why they can't do that out in the wide open spaces to the east instead of insisting on clustering around the highway #2 corrider?

[cowman]

cowman, I find your comments interesting. However, regardless of where landowners come from, if land is for sale in an area where they want to farm, and they have the money to buy the land, where does it say that they cannot do so ? The European farmers as well as our own Canadian farmers must adhere to very stringent regulations as far as applying manure is concerned in Alberta,regardless of where they farm.
In my area there was a huge cry for 10 acre parcels 12 years ago when people were planning on making their fortunes with ostriches, llamas etc. The county agreed and a lot of 10 acre parcels were created. After the people lost their shirt with llamas and ostriches, they soon realized that the 10 acres was a lot more than they needed to have a dog and cat. They had to control weeds, keep the grass down and no-one wanted to rent those few acres to pasture cattle or horses so it was a liability. Now the county allows a minimum of 4 acre parcels and up to three per quarter but that is being reviewed.
If all municipalities decide to have open season on subdividing productive agricultural lands, future generations will suffer. I do think that Red Deer County is doing a good job of allowing orderly development along the Highway 2 corridor. It will be a real challenge for them to make decisions that will please the majority of their citizens as the pressures increase for development in a wider area around Red Deer.