Council Meeting of May 17, 2011 Crowsnest Pass

Council Meeting of May 17, 2011


Public Hearing:

1. Bylaw 826,2011 Land Use Amendment-Green Mountain Company

Favour: Lowry Toombs, Royal LePage realtor spoke in favour of the rezoning from Non-Urban to Multi-Residential on behalf of Mark Kirwin, developer from the Green Mountain Company who is interested in developing lands in West Coleman for high-density housing such as multi-four-plexes

Against – Randy Tucker, on behalf of the West Coleman Community submitted documentation against the development for Council’s review.

Mayor Decoux requested that Mr. Tucker and other residents present for the public hearing meet with Mr. Toombs and Mr. Kirwin outside of Chambers to review the concept as presented and to return when the rezoning Bylaw was being reviewed by Council for 2nd and 3rd reading.

Adoption of Agenda:

Mayor Decoux added three items under other business, Realtors Request, Lions Club and Slave Lake, Councilor Gail added one item under In Camera, Land. Councilor Londsbury added one item under other business, Councilor absence for the next G+P meeting. Motion to accept the Agenda as amended was passed unanimously

Adoption of previous minutes:

Minutes of the Council Meeting of May 3, 2011, with one slight correction. Motion to accept was passed unanimously

Delegations: None

Administrative and Agency Reports: None

Business arising from the Minutes: None

Correspondence:

1. Hon Luke Ouellette, Minister of Transportation-Bridge Funding provided by the province for the Sentinel Bridge. Motion to file for information passed Unanimously.

2. Hon Hector Goudreau, Municipal Excellence, awards given out by the province each year to municipalities achieving certain degrees of excellence. Motion to file for information passed Unanimously (Mayor Decoux advised that in future years the Crowsnest Pass will be looking at this has they will be doing many Innovative initiatives)

3. Crowsnest Community Trails Ribbon Cutting Ceremony, Motion to table until take Council meeting passed Unanimously.

Committee Reports:

1. Minutes of April 11, 2011 Municipal Heritage Board, no discussion. Motion to accept passed unanimously.

Bylaws:

1. Bylaw 816,2011- Walking Trail Bylaw (1st reading) No discussion Motion passed unanimously

2. Bylaw 825,2011- Agricultural Services Board Bylaw (1st reading) Councilor Saindon asked if all provincial criteria had been met? Yes Motion passed unanimously

3. Bylaw 826,2011- Land Use Amendment (2th + 3rd reading) Concerns rose about height of units, coal in the area, Highway 3, wildlife, and green space. Motion for 2nd reading passed 4-3 (Saindon, Mitchell, Saje opposed) Motion to table third reading to give time to examine information received from residents in opposition, passed unanimously.

Notices of Motion: None

Other Business:

1. Blairmore Mobile Home Site

Councilor Gallant started the debate, concerns with displacing seniors, no plan in place for the land, did not want to see another Kananaskis trailer court situation, also the issue that the community lacks affordable housing.

Councilor Saindon raised concerns regarding where do these people go, what value would there homes have, how well this area is looked after a fact that other residents should pay attention to.

Councilor Mitchell made a motion to force the trailers out if they are sold, or if they need to be moved for repairs, Councilor Saindon made an amendment to say that new trailers could not be brought into the area, this was defeated by a vote of 4-3 (Gail, Saindon, Mitchell in support). Councilor Saje made a motion to table this issue until the Municipal Development Plan or further planning is in place this passed by a vote of 4-3 (Saindon, Gallant, Gail opposed)

2. Bylaw Enforcement Report, No discussion Motion to accept passed unanimously

3. Practices and Procedures review, Mayor Decoux spoke to the possibility that an external group could be used for this process. Motion to accept passed unanimously.

4. Three Year Budget Cycle, Motion made to review this concept prior to the next budget process beginning was passed unanimously, CAO informed council that this would be coming to the policy committee May 18, 2011

5. Approval for Commercial signage on Municipal property, portable sign at the Blairmore Liquor Store. Motion to accept passed unanimously.

6. Community Standards-Municipal Facilities, despite some concerns raised by the Public Works Director. Motion to move forward with this was passed unanimously.

7. Removal of municipal reserve designation-Coleman athletic park across from the old Coleman Collieries building. Motion to accept passed unanimously

8. Correspondence to SRD-Recreational roadways. To the minister and local MLA regarding allowing the municipal to be a part of any discussions regarding recreational roadways with the Atlas road being the highest priority. Motion to accept passed unanimously

9. Council agenda committee, Mayor Decoux felt that this would take up to much time, felt that it should be a part of the review of the G+P committee and the procedural bylaw. Motion to table to that time passed unanimously

10. Parade schedule, council members to notify Lynne Cox to their availability.

11. Appointment to the Municipal Heritage Board, Motion to appoint Gale Comin for another two year term passed unanimously

12. Realtor’s request to waive off site levies, administration still working on.

13. Lions club request, administration still working on

14. Slave Lake challenge from the town of Nanton to other communities to help Slave lake agree to defer to the G+P meeting.

15. Councilor Londsbury’s request for permission to miss the next G+P meeting passed unanimously.

Council Member reports: Usual report about various meeting attended by members of council. One exception Councilor Gail made the statement that “there are a lot of messes in this community that need to be cleaned up” I look forward to future meeting to see how he clarifies this statement, and to the initiatives he brings forth to achieve these goals.

Public Input: None

Motion to go In Camera: Passed Unanimously

Atlas Road Utilization

Back in August the majority of council voted against granting Spray Lakes Sawmills a road use agreement. Why?
On Dec 2 2008 Spray Lakes and SRD approached council regarding their logging plan for the Atlas Road area.
We as council were concerned, for several reasons. Firstly we do not have a sawmill here any longer which used to be a significant employer in the area. So that leaves our three largest employers in the area; the BC Mines, Government (Municipal, Provincial, Hospital etc) and Tourism.
Obviously the Mines and Government will not be negatively effected by logging but Tourism could be if the logging is not done in the proper areas and in a reasonable fashion. Would we has a council have good reason to be concerned about the logging on Atlas Road?
Yes when we were initially approached there was concern about logging going up the side of the Crowsnest Mountain, and being visible from the highway, there was concern about buffer areas along the river. There was concerns on the impact of the logging on the tourism operators in that area. The greatest concern for myself was the way that the Kananaskis Road had been logged the previous logging season, to which both Spray Lakes and SRD agreed mistakes had been made. That things were being done to clean up that area and ensure that it does not happen again, I certainly felt that between SRD and Spray Lakes there was not enough communication back to make council comfortable that future logging practices would be acceptable to all parties involved.
That is why I choice not to support a road use agreement.
We were informed this week that SRD and Spray Lakes are trying to schedule a date to sit down with council and get a better flow of communications going between the three groups.
On the rumour of the closure of the Atlas Road itself, we has a council have been led to believe that after Spray Lakes finishes utilizing that Road to truck its timber that they have no interest in maintaining the road. If that ends up being the case, then it becomes any issue of anybody else stepping up to maintain the road.

Atlas Road Logging Crowsnest Pass

Just received word that Spray Lakes will start logging Monday on the Atlas Road. I sincerely hope they do a better job than they did on the Kananaskis Road, and I hope SRD does a better job of staying on top of them.

I guess the Crowsnest Pass will be saved from the Pine Beetle!

Logging on the Atlas Road (Crowsnest Pass)

Well here is an update on the logging situation on the Atlas Road. We were told at our Tuesday Jan 6 2009 council meeting that Spray Lakes is meeting with SRD the week of Jan 12. At this point we are led to believe that they do not have approval to log on the Atlas Road.
We also had presented to us the road use agreement which would allow Spray Lakes to use the portion of the Atlas road that is controlled by the municipality. This road use agreement was passed by a vote of 4-3, with councilors Cole, Salus and Ward opposed.

Personally I had a whole different opinion about logging in our area when there was a mill here employing a large group of Crowsnest Pass residents. Now these folks from Cochrane are going to impact the natural beauty of our area for what? I sincerely hope that SRD if they allow this logging, they force them to do a far better job than they did up the Kananaskis road

Logging on the Atlas Road (Crowsnest Pass)

Tuesday night Dec 2, both SRD and Spray Lakes came to council to present their reasoning for logging on the Atlas Road.

We heard lots of interesting stuff on the pine beetle which I believe everybody recognizes is a problem. But I am far from convinced that taking out swaths of trees in some places no more than a few hundred metres wide are going to stop the pine beetle. Especially when you are talking about a creature no bigger than a grain of rice, that comes from BC on winds that can blow in excess of a hundred Km per hour.

I raised the question "will this area look similar to what the Kananaskis Road does today?" I was told no. "I asked what went wrong on the Kananaskis Road" I was told an investigation is taking place by SRD on that area due to the logging procedures not being followed.

I also asked "how do we ensure that it does not happen again?" I was assured once again that the logging plan will be followed on the Atlas Road. To which I asked "what happens if it isn't?"
To which I was told that the procedures would be enforced if they don't follow them, the unfortunate part is at that point the trees are gone.

Just a theory, and I may well be wrong but right now the lumber market is in the toilet, so mills are reducing their costs by logging the low cost area's, on flat ground, with a road going threw it close to Highway 3. If these Beetle infested trees were 30 km from the nearest road, on a 20 degree slope would we have been talking about them last night?.

By the way the Kananaskis Road was also logged by Spray Lakes Contractors!

Logging in the Crowsnest Pass (Kananaskis View from the road)

Lot of concern out there right now about the impact of proposed logging on the Atlas Road in the Crowsnest Pass. Some of this concern is being driven by the logging that took place last year along the Kananaskis Road. Above are some pictures of where the logging took place up the Kananaskis Road about one km north of Coleman.

On Tuesday December 2th both SRD and Spray Lakes Sawmills will be appearing in front of council to make presentations regarding the proposed logging.

7pm at the municipal office in Coleman this is open to the public.