Dan Wolf built his home on a quiet country residential parcel away from Okotoks’ bustling borders.
Okotoks is now on his front doorstep and his home could become part of the town on New Year’s Day 2017 if the Town’s plan to annex 1,950 hectares of land is approved.
Wolf said if the annexation goes through he will move from his home, sandwiched between Holy Trinity Academy and Okotok’s north boundary, but Wolf said he supports the Town’s plans.
“I’m looking forward to the annexation,” he said.
Wolf was one of more than 130 people in attendance at an April 20 meeting at the Foothills Centennial Centre where planners for the Town and MD unveiled details of the annexation plan.
MD and Okotoks councils signed a memorandum of understanding earlier this month after years of negotiations and debate over the Town’s plans to annex enough land for 60 years of growth.
The plan will see Okotoks’ borders extend south and west as far as the intersection of Big Rock Trail and Highway 7 to Highway 2 in the northeast.
Landowners at the meeting learned agricultural lands annexed into the Town will be taxed at the same rate currently paid to the MD for the next 30 years. They would be subject to Okotoks tax rates if the land is developed.
The agreement also outlines a referral area, giving the Town of Okotoks the opportunity to comment on future development applications
“We’re not developing any policy that would restrict development any more than the MD has currently,” said Heather Hemmingway, MD director of planning. “What that means is we’re going to talk to each other about what each of us will do.”
She said developments on the Town’s fringes have been a source of friction between the Town and MD in the past and both sides want to work together to ensure they don’t face similar conflict in the future.
Wolf said this is a positive move. He said he has run into several hurdles over the years trying to find suitable uses for his property because it borders the town of Okotoks. He said the new agreement will make it easier for the Town, MD and landowners to resolve issues that may arise.
“The new relationship looks much better than the old relationship,” said Wolf.
A strip of land on the west side of Highway 2A, including the Okotoks Alliance Church, Edison School and the Okotoks Farmers Market, will remain in the MD.
“I was perfectly happy to become part of the Town if it had come to that, but I’m also perfectly happy to remain in the MD,” said David Chernoff, Edison School co-founder.
Chernoff said he’s worked with both the Town and the MD and expects to be able to continue to do so in the future.
“Back in the mid-1990s, when we made an application to locate the school there, the Town and the MD were both intimately involved, as they should be,” he said.
One Okotoks area farmer wants her land removed from the annexation plan.
“We don’t want to be annexed,” said Jackie Miller.
She said the proposal would split her property, bringing half in Okotoks and the other half would remain in the MD.
It’s a scenario she doesn’t look forward to.
“My biggest issue is just dealing with elected officials who don’t understand rural life,” she said.
Miller said her family farm is on prime farmland and they have no plans to develop it.
However, she said she feels like the deal is done and she has no way to prevent her land from being annexed.
She added she might not be able to subdivide land to pass on to her children.
“We’re in 60 years, I think it’s quite ridiculous that they would tie up our property for 60 years,” she said.
Okotoks senior planner Jamie Douglas said landowners who don’t agree with annexation will have an opportunity to provide input both to the MD and the Municipal Government Board during public hearings into the plan.
“They can say no, but the board has the final decision,” he said.
Douglas said there is still a lot of work to do for annexation to take effect on Jan. 1, 2017 as planned.
Both the Town and MD need to complete changes to their intermunicipal development plan and their municipal development plans and the MD will hold a public hearing.
The Town will submit its annexation application to the Municipal Government Board in either late spring, or early summer.
The board will then hold its own public hearing on the application, likely in the fall, before the annexation is final.
Douglas said it helps that both the Town and MD are on the same side over the annexation plan and it’s rare for the board to make any changes to annexation plans when both sides are in agreement.
