Property Rights

[coppertop]

I agree that there needs to be provincial legislation regarding land use. There are provincial Land Use Policies but they have absolutely no teeth. I have advocated for years that there is a need for an over arching provincial plan, that looks at the Province from the 40,000 foot level. It needs to enshrine environmental issues, areas of historical significanc etc. In our municipality there are two areas where huge multi parcel subdivisions were allowed, one in a swamp and another in the flood plain of a large creek. These were approved back in the days of the old Regional Planning Commissions and have come back to haunt the previous and past councils of our county.

Certainly we have seen in our own county unfairness and inconsistency, not only on the MPC but the SDAB as well over the years. Some new council members just do not want to say no to anyone regardless of whether or not their application is consistent with current Land Use Planning documents.

I could show you horror stories of development in my own community, they should have never been approved and now they are causing all sorts of problems for existing large livestock operations.

kpb, I hope when the Province does take their draft Land Use Policy Framework out for public consultation, you and many other Albertans will provide input and suggestions. This policy will ultimately affect every single Albertan, and you can bet that land developers, special interest groups etc. will have thier say, so it is important that average every day Albertans do to.

[kpb]

I agree with everything you said in your last post and look forward to a provincial land use policy from "40,000 feet" which is a superb way of putting it. I will provide input to my MLA when that takes place.

kpb

[coppertop]

At this point in time there has not been a process decided upon for the public consultation. It may take the form of written submissions, or there may be an MLA committee going around the province meeting with various groups and individuals, similar to what the Klaptstein Committee did with regard to the Confined Feeding Operations.

I have been involved in five separate forums to date on the Land Use Framework, and will certainly post information on this site when I learn what the next steps in the process will be.

[Horse]

Another Thurber report what the hell good does it do other than an income for the members on the comittie????

[coppertop]

Horse, the Land Use Policy Framework discussions have been going on for some time. Up to this point there have been at least 20 meetings with various groups plus one three day session in Red Deer in December to gather as much information as possible so the government could move forward with implementing a land use framework that is crucial in this time of unprecedented growth in Alberta.

There will likely be either a discussion paper or a series of public meetings where interested parties can make presentations. I don't know if you remember when the government rolled out the Water Act or not, but there had been numerous meetings prior to that happening, I parcitiated in several of them as a private citizen, the same goes for the consultation process leading up to the implmentation of the Agricultural Operations Practices Act.

There were two separate sets of public consultation on that legislation, and much of what various groups and individuals suggested ended up in the legislation.

The Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties, and the Alberta Urban Municipalities Associatin have already prepared position papers on this land use framework, and before it ever becomes legislation every environmental group,umbrella groups for various resource industries etc., will certainly provide their input. This is a huge undertaking, and one that is long overdue. It is a cross ministry initiative with Sustainable Resource Development taking the lead.