It’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle, but you still have to rein it in.

It’s a common refrain, but something needs to be done to curb acreage sprawl across the foothills region. The MD of Foothills is trying to accomplish that task with its proposed Municipal Development Plan (MDP). The plan was unveiled to ratepayers at a public hearing in High River on Nov. 26 and the document received some mixed reviews.

The proposed MDP makes preservation of agricultural land a priority, recognizing all land in the MD as agricultural unless zoned otherwise.

Agricultural land is a valuable resource and once it’s broken by development, it’s impossible to backtrack and return that land to farming.

As a result, the MDP outlines more stringent rules to ensure the existing agriculture land remaining in the MD is preserved.

One step the new MDP proposes is eliminating the first parcel out.

Such a stance is a Catch-22 for Foothills farmers who are seeing land prices continue to rise making it difficult to expand their operations. Yet many farmers have used the first parcel out provision to keep their operations afloat or to use for estate planning.

People are accustomed to selling off portions of their land using it as a nest egg or to provide land for the next generation of would-be farmer.

It may be seen as a centuries old right to hand down or sell off part of a farm, but considering the growth pressures the region has seen in recent years it may be time for this to change.

In essence, what many landowners have viewed as a God-given right to subdivide their land may not be an option any longer.

Few will argue the importance of the land and water in the foothills and strict rules have to be put in place to conserve it for the future.

The MD has made similar declarations in the past to protect farm land yet country residential and urban sprawl continue to creep into the Foothills.

If the Foothills MD council is indeed going to take a stand with its Municipal Development Plan — as it should — it needs to ensure there are specific rules and guidelines in the document to ensure landowners know where they stand long-term, especially for those who have been looking at their farm land as their retirement fund.

There certainly needs to be some wiggle room to allow council to make land use decisions, but there can no longer be hodge-podge country residential development sporadically strewn throughout the MD. Most importantly, long-time Foothills landowners need to know exactly where the future of their land lies.

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