NEWS PHOTO COLLIN GALLANT The Sunshine Greenhouse facility is seen from Township Road 122 in Cypress County near the Medicine Hat city limits. Planned changes to a tri-municipal development agreement suggest zoning changes to promote development of the greenhouse industry in a cluster of three quarter-sections just outside the southwest boundary.
A joint public hearing to discuss the Tri-Area Development Plan for the areas adjacent to Medicine Hat city limits will be held on Feb. 27 at the Esplanade Studio Theatre.
The agreement builds on a 2009 agreement that set out land-use and planning protocols for land in direct interest to Medicine Hat, the Town of Redcliff and Cypress County. A provincial deadline to put an update in place is April 1, and the hearing – conducted by the three municipal councils – is required. All three will need to approve the plan in respective meetings next month.
Administrators in Medicine Hat have described the pact as 90 per cent carryover from the original document signed 10 years ago.
The new proposal includes the potential for a dedicated “greenhouse corridor” to encourage the industry to locate on land in Cypress County near Medicine Hat’s southwest boundary. Also, a potential jointly planned commercial-industrial corridor northwest of Redcliff is proposed.
Some wording changes would allow new growth in the county hamlets of Veinerville and Desert Blume up the level that current servicing – provided by the City of Medicine Hat – allows.
At the hearing, any resident of the three municipalities can make a presentation. Oral submissions will be limited to five minutes.
Written submissions will be received until noon on Feb. 19 at the Medicine Hat city clerk’s office.
