Site and building design guidelines for the Town of Stettler will soon be set to create a welcome entrance along highways in the Stetter area.
At its regular meeting May 18, town council approved a recommendation from the committee-of–the-whole meeting (all council) on May 11 to direct administration to update parts of the land-use bylaw to incorporate commercial and industrial site and building design guidelines.
“Design guidelines would reflect council’s intent to improve the overall appearance of development along highways in our community,” said Mayor Dick Richards.
“By incorporating them into bylaw, these guidelines validate council’s intention to make developers along highway corridors consider the aesthetic appearance of their structures, storage and landscaping prior to development approval.”
These guidelines would apply to highway commercial and industrial areas adjacent to the prominently visible sections from a primary highway in the town’s boundaries and in growth areas identified in the inter-municipal development plan with the County of Stettler.
Proposals for development in affected areas would be reviewed by the municipal planning commission.
Although she wasn’t at the committee meeting, Councillor Leona Thorogood said design guidelines certainly beautify a community as she reflected on driving through High River recently.
“It’s good to see consistency in designs that make a community look much better,” said Councillor Thorogood.
Development staff and councils of the town and County of Stettler will work together to draft the bylaws over the next few months.
Watershed management plan
Council endorsed draft terms of reference for the Red Deer River Integrated Watershed Management Plan initiated by the Red Deer River Watershed Alliance to address water and ecological issues identified in the State of the Watershed Report and support development of Red Deer Regional Plan under the provincial Land-Use Framework.
Scheduled to be complete by September 2012, the plan will:
• Set targets and thresholds that meet or exceed regulations, for water quality, land use and biological diversity indicators identified in the State-of-the Watershed Report and minimum flows to maintain ecological integrity for each subwatershed.
• Develop recommendations to address concerns identified in this report.
• Suggest tools to
implement the recommendations.