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Public hearing on potential amendment, setback changes to Rafter Six ASP

A pair of public hearings on the Rafter Six tourist and recreation district allowed MD of Bighorn residents to give feedback on proposed setback and area structure plan changes.
MD of Bighorn building winter 1
The MD of Bighorn administration building in Exshaw. RMO FILE PHOTO

MD OF BIGHORN – A pair of public hearings on the Rafter Six tourist and recreation district allowed MD of Bighorn residents to give feedback on proposed setback and area structure plan changes.

The potential ASP amendment could see the guiding document updated to include the latest version of Bighorn’s land use bylaw, while the setback may see a change from 30 to five metres.

Fiona Mactaggart, one of the owners of Star6 Ranch in the district, spoke in favour of the amendment to the ASP, but she spoke out against the proposed setback change.

“We did it legally. We went through council, and we stated why our reasons existed,” Mactaggart said. “We were granted a legal setback.”

In a letter to council, Mactaggart wrote the concern was related to a history of non-compliance in the district.

“Ignoring the current encroachment, and more importantly relaxing the current setback provision, only encourages continued non-compliance consistent with the history,” she said in the letter. “I urge council, instead, to enforce the existing land use bylaw which have been proven to work effectively.”

She wrote it was better to leave the current provision in, rather than changing the setbacks for the entire district.

“I am very opposed to this relaxation,” she said. “Especially when the provision exists for you, the council, to relax the side-yard setback on a case-by-case basis once you have analyzed the arguments as to why.”

However, she noted she was in favour of a relaxation on the side yard setback for another property in the district.

“I believe that the relaxation on the side yard for the 2.9 acres (1.17 hectares) should be granted, absolutely,” she said, citing provisions exist to relax setbacks on a case-by-case basis.

The land in question is owned by Gloria Cowley. She spoke in favour of the setback change and that her daughter and son-in-law attempted to renovate a mobile home on the property but found it was infested with black mould. It was replaced with a 600-square-foot oilfield trailer.

“With the expansion of their family, it was natural to have a little bit bigger of a facility,” Cowley said. “On our permit for the dwelling, we had to build a permanent structure.”

She added the 600-square-foot area of land is where her daughter and son-in-law hope to build a future home, but the structure could not go anywhere else on the property due to the septic and water facility on the property.

“We just want to build a life. We have a right to live and to work,” Cowley said. “That is all we are asking for. Without interference, without prejudice, without being under the microscope that everything we do may be of issue. The five metres would definitely improve our quality of life and use of that small property.”

Coun. Joss Elford asked whether Star6 Ranch was part of the original discussions in the ASP, but municipal administration was not aware. However, MD administration said with ASPs being a give-and-take between developers and municipalities, they can be influenced by preferences and biases.

“The reason for looking to change it, is since 2010 that tremendous amount of time has been devoted to various aspects of this 30-metre setback,” said Peter Scholz, Bighorn’s director of planning services. “That doesn’t seem to be lightening up.”

Scholz noted the reason to review the setback was due to a development permit for a new mobile structure on the Cowley Outfitters Ltd. property in the northeast of the district and the unit was within the setback.

“We also received a complaint from the Star6 Ranch that included the drone photos from directly over the Cowley site,” Scholz said. “It became noteworthy that the application and best practice, that reducing the setbacks may be appropriate in this case.”

The setback proposal considered factors such as topographic limitations, which municipal administration proposed reducing the district’s setbacks by 83 per cent. It also noted the 30-metre setback requirement was a carryover from standard agricultural setbacks.

A staff report stated reducing the setback wouldn’t impact or interfere with the amenities of the neighbourhood.

The potential amendment to the ASP would see the ASP modernized, according to municipal staff. The existing ASP for Rafter Six has a pre-2018 version of Bighorn’s land use bylaw and since ASPs are statutory documents under the Municipal Government Act and land use bylaws aren’t, an ASP takes precedence.

Among other changes in the original ASP and the 2018 land use bylaw are front yard setbacks of 30 metres rather than 40 metres in the original front yard setback.

With the inclusion of an excerpt from the land use bylaw in an ASP, any changes to the land use bylaw can’t come into effect until the ASP is also amended. The original ASP also had the massing of buildings should be on site so lower buildings are on the perimeter and taller buildings are in the middle, but the 2018 land use bylaw has no regulation for that.

Mactaggart, speaking on behalf of the Star6 Ranch, spoke in favour of the amended Rafter Six Resort ASP.

“My understanding is that this a chance to modernize the area structure plan,” Mactaggart said. “I am in favour of sorting discrepancies and making documents the same and to make sense so governance is straightforward and sound.”

Mactaggart added that in 2014 the Rafter Six Ranch went bankrupt, and Mactaggart and her husband Kevin, purchased it and renamed the ranch the Star6 Ranch.

“The Rafter Six Ranch no longer exists within the MD of Bighorn,” Mactaggart said. “The Star6 Ranch does. The Star6 Ranch makes up 95 per cent of the region referred to as the RSTR in the area structure plan.”

Mactaggart suggested rather than the word modernize, council use evolutionize since it means “growth and evolution means survival.”

Cowley, who was from the original Rafter Six Ranch, said she was also in favour of the ASP change.

“From 2002, when we moved into the MD, [the ASP] was not approved until 2006,” Cowley said. “When we say we approve it, some of the things that were in the document we did not agree with. To have some of those things corrected is good from our opinion.”

Council will deliberate on second readings for both bylaws at a later meeting.

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