I’ve heard in the community there’s been some mixed information being provided about the result of our recent land use bylaw change by Council. I’d like to take a few moments to share the information and the source where it comes from.
For all planning and statutory documents for the Town of Coalhurst they can be found on the Oldman River Regional Services Commission website. We also have a plan that’s been adopted by Council for the stormwater pond on the east side of town commonly referred to as the “wetlands”.
https://www.orrsc.com/members/towns-a-m/town-of-coalhurst/
The documents that would be of note are our:
- Land Use Bylaw
- Land Use Bylaw map
- Municipal Development Plan
- Municipal Development Plan Amendments
- Wetlands Plan
- Vibrant Spaces Vibrant Lives, A community Plan for Recreation and Culture
From my understanding there are two primary areas of concern. The undeveloped area behind the elementary school, that currently has the canal and walking path, and the area in the north east corner of town which is north of the RV storage and east of 8th Street.
On the two images below we see the area behind the school which is currently zoned as “transitional” (grey color). The area east of 7th and 8th street has a few different types of zoning. On the southwest corner of the undeveloped area there’s a cowboy boot shape that’s listed as “transitional”, the wetlands area is zoned as “parks and recreation” (green color). We see more of the parks and recreation in the northeast corner of town, parcel x, where our new off leash dog park is. To the south and west of parcel x there’s another new zone, “business park” (pink color) that expands west towards 8th street. Note there is a sliver of “parks and rec” between 8th street and the “business park”.
Two Images above are taken from the Land Use Bylaw Zoning Map
The Land Use Bylaw has a breakdown of what the different zoning types contain, but before I get there I wanted to speak briefly to the process. Our Land Use Bylaw is a way to paint sections of town for the purpose they will support. This could include park spaces, places for residential, places for business. After the Land Use Bylaw is passed before any additional work can be completed we would have the Town alongside developers create an Area Structure Plan (ASP). During the process of creating the ASP there are mandated opportunities for the community to provide input through a public hearing and gathering feedback before that hearing. The ASP really breaks things down into a rough lay of the land for where roads and infrastructure will go. It’s a guiding document that helps when it comes time to do the actual subdivision of lots.
There is a higher level document, the Municipal Development Plan, which sets the direction for growth within town. The MDP was passed by previous councils in May of 2017. This would have been the end of the term of council that sat two terms before the current Council had been elected. When the MDP had been passed in 2017 the area to the northeast of town had been listed as “New Employment Areas” and there was a section that was “Additional Planning Areas”.
Municipal Development Plan Map 1 (pdf page 24 of the Municipal Development Plan)
The changes in 2025 to the Land Use Bylaw had set the zoning for the “New Employment Area” by creating the “Business Park” zoning, in addition the “Additional Planning Areas” had ended up turning into an off leash dog park under the “Parks and Recreation Zoning”
I’ll quickly summarize the different zoning we have in the Land Use Bylaw that I’ve mentioned before.
Transitional (page 93 of the LUB pdf), purpose: “To be applied to larger parcels of land usually on the periphery of existing development. The district restricts uses and maintains parcels in larger sizes to allow maximum flexibility for use and development when the land is required for urban development.“
Parks and Recreation (page 89 of the LUB pdf), purpose: “To designate areas for the development of open space, parks and recreational areas and facilities.“
Business Park (page 83 of the LUB pdf), purpose: “To allow for the development of light manufacturing, assembly operations, warehousing, business services and contractor services, sales for goods produced on-site and other commercial uses which are compatible with each other and with uses in adjacent districts.”
Business Industrial (page 85 of the LUB pdf), purpose: “To allow for the development of industrial commercial uses which are compatible with each other and with uses in adjacent districts.”
What does this exactly mean? For one there’s going to be no type of factories or any business that will be developed behind the Elementary school at this time. As this is listed as transitional council hasn’t made any decisions for development, commercial or anything really. There are other factors at play that may influence decisions on development in the future like the costs associated with remediation and preparing the site for development.
This also means that for the houses by the cowboy boot mentioned above, Council hasn’t decided what will fit between there and the wetlands. The wetlands being parks and rec mean that we can take the plan the Wetlands Enhancement Committee had created and use that as a guiding document to provide additional amenities to residents.
When the zoning changes from Transitional to its intended purpose there will be opportunity for community engagement through the mandated process which involves gathering information and a public hearing.
Now let’s dive into the Business Park. Page 83 of the Land Use Bylaw pdf dives deeper into this but we have a list of what is permitted and discretionary. If someone wanted to develop with something that was permitted, as long as they are following the rules for the zoning they would be able to proceed. For the discretionary uses these would be reviewed and looked at on a case by case basis to ensure that they fit with not only the business park but the residents that live in the area.
I have a clip below from page 83 of the LUB pdf that shows the permitted and discretionary uses for the Business Park zoning. For a full breakdown of definitions of the different purposes please look at the definitions that begin on page 155 of the LUB pdf.
When we are looking at the area south of the RV Storage on the east side of town. Council had adopted a two stage guiding document for development of the “Wetlands”. The wetlands is the area surrounding the stormwater pond located just north of 45th avenue. The two phases are shown below. At the Sept. 2nd Council meeting, Council had adopted the two phase plan for future development. The two phases and accompanying conceptual images are shown below.
Finally, when we look at the Vibrant Spaces Vibrant Lives (Rec. Master Plan) document, it identifies areas in town as different locations for development. The area behind the elementary school borders two different locations highlighted in our Rec. Master Plan are: Community Centre & Town-Centre Park. A deeper dive into the rec master plans highlights some of the amenities that we could see come to the area should future councils want to allocate money to them. These are not set in stone by any means but some amenities that have been identified are: outdoor amphitheater, multi-use outdoor ice surface, picnic shelter, social area/ community gathering, or a memorial garden (Rec. Master Plan PDF pages 50-52). The thoughts from the current council are to eventually create a community space within that area of town.
PDF page 45 of the Recreation Master Plan (Vibrant Spaces Vibrant Lives)
I hope this adds a little bit of clarity to the process and when this process had begun. When our current council was looking at ways to prevent residents bringing in over 95% of the taxation the town collects we were trying to find the most suitable cost effective way of doing so. We had brought along MPE engineering to do a study and the area in the NE corner of town was identified as the best location. When Council had looked at creating the zoning there we had looked at what would be permitted or discretionary to limit the impact to nearby residents. Thought was given to maintaining spaces for people to gather within the community and look at community spaces holistically for the growth of Coalhurst.
If you would like to read my personal insight into why I had made the choice to support the land use bylaw it can be found on my website’s blog: