The Town of Okotoks and Wind Walk’s developers are burying the hatchet to finally get shovels in the ground for the proposed development just outside Okotoks’ south boundary.
After almost eight years of legal challenges and disputes, it’s time the Town, MD and developers finally work together to make sure Wind Walk is built once and for all.
In a surprise announcement Monday morning, Wind Walk’s developer, the Holmes Group, revealed it reached a memorandum of understanding with the Town to support Okotoks’ proposed annexation of the 147-acre site south of Highway 7.
The agreement could see the development tie into the Town’s water and wastewater system and the developer is now asking the Town and MD to work together to allow the community’s first phase to move forward.
It’s been a long, expensive and sometimes difficult process since Wind Walk was first announced in 2008. The Town challenged the development to the provincial Municipal Government Board and in the courts, even taking to the doors of the Supreme Court, only to be turned down. Wind Walk’s developers were also unsuccessful in attempts to secure groundwater for the community.
Just as Drake Landing put Okotoks on the map as a leader in sustainable development, so too can Wind Walk. Plans for the community include leading edge environmental technology
Annexing Wind walk will also solve a few problems the Town is currently facing.
Okotoks is running short of land for residential development, and Wind Walk will add much needed supply.
The Town also needs new school sites, this is something that could be accomplished on the Wind Walk site. The ASP approved by the MD of Foothills in 2010 includes a potential school site.
The agreement is very likely a difficult blow to the MD of Foothills, which has fought along-side Wind Walk’s developers every step of the way.
The MD deserves due consideration for this effort, which needs to be recognized in a final agreement with the Town.
The fight has gone on long enough, and it’s time for all sides to do what should have been done years ago, allow Wind Walk’s developers to get to work.
