City begins review of land use bylaw
By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on August 24, 2023.
LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com The City of Lethbridge has begun a three-year process of examining its land use bylaw.The bylaw was created in 1986 and while it has been updated over the decades, a complete renewal has not been undertaken. Until now.
The project will cost about $1.2 million and was an initiative in the 2023-26 budget that city council passed last fall.
The first phase of the renewal project will focus on community health and wellbeing with residents being asked to complete a survey and give their feedback on such matters as transitional housing, emergency shelters, social services, supportive housing and, says the City, partnering with other levels of government.
Senior community planner and project co-manager Ross Kilgour told media at City Hall on Wednesday “our land use bylaw is really all the development rules for the whole city, all of the zoning and so on.”
“This is going to be a three-year project that we’re launching today. We’re going to take the opportunity to make the land use bylaw a lot more user-friendly, easier to understand, easier to use and make it hopefully a little easier for people to build the types of development that people want to see,” said Kilgour.
“The first phase is about social uses, things like different types of social housing, supportive housing, shelters, group homes and so on. It’s also about social services like the food bank, resource centres, drop-in centres. So we’re asking the public to go onto the project website at getinvolvedlethbridge.ca/lub, take a look at the documents there and take a survey about how you’d like to be engaged in this project and what experiences you have of these social uses,” added Kilgour.
The website also has instructional videos and a project primary document that provides more background into the project.
Kilgour says the land use bylaw “is really like the DNA of Lethbridge. It controls what uses and types of buildings can be built where, how tall buildings can be, parking requirements, home businesses and more. It has a huge effect on critical issues like housing affordability, economic development, and sustainability. It’s a tool to standardize our decision-making processes, and this project will determine what aspects of the use and development of land should be regulated and to what degree.” Follow @albeebHerald on Twitter 4
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