County of Stettler held an open house last Thursday, July 22, to seek public input from the community or a new land use bylaw, an effort misunderstood by some county residents as bringing new restrictions on the use of their land.
Tim Fox, chief administrator for the County of Stettler, said they were in the process of rewriting land-use bylaw and the open house was aimed at receiving comments from the public for the new municipal legislation.
He stressed that the intention of the exercise was not to introduce restrictions on the number of horses that owners can keep on their acreage.
“We do have existing zoning regulations for horses on certain developed areas,” Fox said giving examples of certain areas around the Stettler airport where there can be only limited numbers of horses on the acreage.
Rose Crowe, one of the residents, who was present at the open house said she understood that the county was redefining the zoning description and that it had nothing to do with introducing restrictions.
But Crowe said she raised another issue at the meeting that was disturbing residents living along the township road just west of the John Deere dealership west of town.
She said the newly laid gravel had created many problems, foremost among them flat tires.
Fox said the issue was part of the maintenance of the roads in the area and that they would be laying three quarter inch gravel on the road before the end of the year.
“It is in this year’s gravel program” said Fox.