BARRHEAD - County of Barrhead residents will still be able to voice their opinions regarding any revisions or changes to the municipality's land-use bylaw.
That is what development officer Jenny Bruns told councillors during their Nov. 21 meeting as part of a review of the "What We Heard" report, comprised from residents comments from three public engagement sessions this past spring, including an in-person public open house on May 3 at the Summerdale Community Hall, and a three-week online survey.
Due to the limited number of responses to the original online survey (18), Bruns said the county extended the submission deadline and received an additional 102 responses. Just under 50 people signed in at the original open house.
However, she said she believed more than that attended the session
"There were definitely some common themes, such as we needed to enforce more, make sure people are regulated, but do not over-regulate," Bruns said.
Other topics of interest brought forward by residents also included the number of animal units allowed on acreages, food security, country residential subdivisions and residential density, roads (speeding, road use agreements and allowances) and recreational development around lakes.
"Agriculture was also a common theme, and how we needed to protect agricultural lands in our community," she said. "There were some renewable energy discussions about how they did not want the big solar farms. [Unsightly properties] was another big one."
As for the next steps, Bruns said staff would incorporate the comments they received from the public into a series of recommendations and put them into a draft land-use bylaw.
Councillors will then have a chance to review the proposed changes to the bylaw during a workshop.
"We will build it out so that you can see what it will look like and how it will impact ratepayers and provide feedback," she said.
Burns added that staff would then fine-tune the draft bylaw again before giving the public to review the changes during a second open house, after which staff may tweak the document a final time before they present it to council for first reading, after which the public will be given one more time to comment on the document through the public hearing process.
To see more of the public's comments in the "What We Heard" report, go to the county's website, www.countybarrhead.ab.ca.
