During their regular meeting May 26, Sylvan Lake councillors:
● directed staff to formally notify Red Deer County of the town’s intention to proceed with an annexation proposal to acquire land for residential, commercial and industrial growth.
The Sylvan Lake-Red Deer County Intermunicipal Development Plan (IDP) outlines that an annexation application be submitted by the town by October 2014. The process commenced in 2012 but is still in preliminary stages.
In February council established the area the town is interested in annexing on the east and west sides of current boundaries.
The IDP committee, which includes representatives from both municipalities, held a meeting May 9 and “agreed to the proposed annexation area and anticipated process for moving forward”, according to a report prepared by planner Kim Devlin.
● approved a development permit for a second storey open-air sundeck and an accessory building at the Wild Rapid Waterslides property. Among conditions of the approval are that hours of operation of the patio are to be limited to that of the waterslides (12-8 pm daily, weather permitting). It will seat up to 124 people.
● approved a motion from Councillor Matt Prete directing staff to research other municipalities using a system for protection of mature trees and present a plan to council for implementing that in the Municipal Development Plan.
He wants to have something in place so they can make sure they have a plan for mature trees on lots that come up for redevelopment.
“What I appreciate about the intent is to create a tree plan, not to say you can’t cut down trees, but there is a plan in place,” said Councillor Chris Lust.
● awarded a contract to Banister Research & Consulting Inc., in the amount of $29,825 plus GST, for the “Tourism Economic Impact Assessment Project, Survey of Visitors to Sylvan Lake, Summer 2014”.
The economic impact assessment was identified as one of the first initiatives in the corporate tourism strategy and implementation plan completed in 2013, reported Vicki Kurz, the town’s economic development officer.
In addition to the town’s $30,000 budget, she indicated, “Alberta Tourism, Parks and Recreation will contribute $30,000 to conduct the modelling exercise utilizing the weighted data collected by the consultant”.
● approved roof repair work at the Protective Services building with a project budget of $65,000. Since the building was opened in May 2012 there has been periodic water leakage “especially during wind-drive rain events from the east direction”, wrote David Yee, project manager, in his report to council.
The deficiency was identified and a holdback on the contract was retained. The general contractor is reportedly no longer active, so money from the holdback will be used to correct the problem.