WESTLOCK – Three years after discussions between Westlock County and the Summer Village of Larkspur started, councillors from both have signed off on an intermunicipal development plan (IDP) between the two municipalities, a document that “ensures the coordination of future development and land-use policies.”
County councillors voted 5-2 (deputy reeve Ray Marquette, who asked for a recorded vote, and Coun. Stuart Fox-Robinson were opposed) at their Aug. 9 meeting to give third and final reading to the Bylaw 03-2022: Intermunicipal Development Plan between Westlock County and the Summer Village of Larkspur, while summer village councillors approved the edict July 23.
An IDP is a provincially-mandated, land-use plan prepared by two (or more) municipalities that share a common border and ensures future development and land-use policy are coordinated — the county signed IDPs with the Town of Westlock and Village of Clyde back in 2019, the same year work began on this agreement with Larkspur.
Reeve Christine Wiese said it’s gratifying to get the agreement signed, noting it probably took longer than anticipated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the change in council last October, plus the turnover of two CAOs over the past three years.
“I know we didn’t have 100 per cent unity on it, but I’m happy with where we settled on it. It’s not easy doing an IDP and I don’t think you’re going to get 100 per cent agreement on all sides,” said Wiese in an Aug. 9 follow-up interview.
“We did have to make some changes and we listened as a lot of those changes were resident-directed. So, I’m hoping they’ll be OK with it as well. We wanted to do what was best for everyone and I think we came up with a good package.”
County councillors gave first reading to the bylaw Jan. 25, while Larkspur councillors followed suit at their Jan. 31 meeting. The summer village then hosted a public hearing on the document for its residents March 1, while the county held its own April 26, a two-hour affair that saw chambers packed and included a walkthrough of the document, followed by questions and concerns from county and summer village residents.
At that meeting, the county received 14 written submissions, while eight people provided verbal statements — a summary of those submissions was included as part of a 126-page package that included the bylaw at council’s May 24 meeting.
At that same meeting, councillors passed four contested motions approving wording changes to the bylaw, followed by second reading of the edict and then agreed to hand it back to Larkspur for review — all those votes were recorded as per a motion from Marquette and reported on previously.
Wiese gave credit to Municipal Planning Services’ Jane Dauphinee for clearing the air as there was “a lot of fear and misunderstanding” regarding the IDP — MPS is the planning consultant for both municipalities.
“She was very good at clarifying things and listening and she implemented a lot of the changes into the document, and I think everyone is good with the package we came up with,” said Wiese. “And I think being that the lake was involved, there was some confusion there as well.”
ICF info coming back next month
Meanwhile, county councillors are expecting to receive additional information at their Sept. 20 governance and priorities meeting on the two-year-old intermunicipal collaboration framework (ICF) with the summer village.
Councillors spent more than 40 minutes at their June 21 governance and priorities meeting going over the May 2020 ICF as well as the waste, winter road maintenance and fire protection sub-agreements signed in September 2019 then voted 6-1 twice; first to accept the 25-page report as information, then to direct administration to bring back more details.
At that meeting interim CAO Pat Vincent told council he had “concerns” with the solid waste management sub-agreement between the two.
As it stands Larkspur pays the county $2,500 annually and receives 35 transfer station permit cards for the Jarvie and Pibroch stations — each additional card costs the village $75.
At that meeting Wiese noted in her research she found 78 private dwellings in Larkspur, while agricultural services manager Don Medcke said there are 53 residents— regardless, there is a gap which adds up to a shortfall the county has to eat.
“We can track usage by permit numbers, but we don’t know weights or volumes at the transfer sites, so the county picks up the costs on the tippage of that,” said Medcke at the time.
Mandated under the Municipal Government Act, the ICF is meant to be a “tool to facilitate cooperation between neighbouring municipalities to ensure municipal services are provided to residents efficiently and cost effectively.”
