NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT Kent Snyder, the city's general manager of planning, presents a map included in new proposed agreement between Medicine Hat, Redcliff and Cypress County, about planning issues along city and town limits during Wednesday's municipal planning commission meeting.
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A long-term agreement for how development should occur around Medicine Hat includes the potential for major highway realignment and airport runway extension, even though they still could be decades away.
Proposed amendments to the Intermunicipal Development Plan, between Medicine Hat, Redcliff and Cypress County, were re-introduced to the city’s municipal planning commission on Wednesday.
It would update a 2009 agreement to regulate development along common boundaries of the three municipalities, and envisions both a ring road for the Trans-Canada Highway south of the city and the related realignment of Highway 3.
Both are part of long-range plans by Alberta Transportation, but planning commission members asked about how and when they might proceed, and how they would affect the airport operations.
“If our plan states that Dunmore’s gonna grow, Redcliff is gonna grow and the Hat is going to grow, then we’re very hemmed in at the airport,” said public member Frank Devine.
Within the plan, a southern route for Highway 1, along Township road 121, cuts south from east of Dunmore, then rejoins the current route via a new river valley bridge west of Redcliff. Five proposed interchange locations dot the route on IDP maps. That also skirts past an airport planning area in the city’s southeast, where it’s been a city planning priority to arrange land for potential runway expansion.
“We’re not looking at a (near-term) plan for runway expansion,” said city planning general manager Kent Snyder, during his presentation. “The thought is that with the current footprint (of the airport) and a small expansion, we’ll be operating well there.”
Coun. Darren Hirsch, the vice-chair of MPC, was a member of council when the original IDP plan included the then relatively new proposal to ring major highways around population centres.
“At that time it was a 30-year plan, but it’s population driven,” he said.
A runway study commissioned by the city stated that a longer runway likely wouldn’t be needed until the population reached 100,000, potentially in 2032.
The city began acquiring land for a potential runway extension in the early 2010s.
The current population of the trading area is about 72,000, but Snyder stressed long-term planning leads to better planning.
“It’s important to think about major projects – highways, airports – and make sure boulders are in the right places,” said Snyder.
The plan also proposes that the area northwest of Redcliff become a future commercial/industrial zone that would be jointly planned by the three municipalities. An area directly west of Redcliff remains as a potential growth area for the town. A similar areas exists in the county along Township Road 120.
The plan also proposes that two sections of land in Cypress County, east of Highway 3 and south of the Holsom Road (Highway 523), be delineated as a greenhouse district. That’s due to two major facilities already located there, as well as proximity to new city power lines and transportation routes.
But the area is also in the approach route to the airport. The updates include new development restrictions that can require greenhouses to install blackout curtains.
Public hearing
The proposed update to the Intermunicipal Development Plan will move to a joint public hearing in late February, city planners announced Wednesday.
That could potentially take place at the Esplanade and be open to any resident of the city, town and county, and would lead to the document introduced separately in the respective councils in March for passage by month’s end.
