Magrath conducting LUB review

By Nikki Jamieson
Westwind Weekly News

Magrath council has approved funds for a Land Use Bylaw review.

The town’s current LUB had came into effect in 2007, and since then, it has been amended 59 times.

“Now, we’re kind of at a point where its time to have a full review to readdress the Land Use Bylaw,” said James Suffredine, CAO for Magrath. “(There’s) not necessarily going to be a whole lot of changes; just an update and a complete review of the bylaw.”

The town will be working with their Oldman River Regional Services Commission planner to do the review, and once it is up and running, public consultations and public hearings will be held on the potential changes to the new bylaw.

“The Land Use Bylaw is sort of the biggest bylaw the town will ever have, or the most reflective for a town because it deals with zoning, it deals with all the permitted and discretionary uses, and it’s just a review of all of those,” said Suffredine. “Things change. Some of the updates that happened since 2007 have been significant changes, like the federal government legalizing cannabis, so all of a sudden you have to change these things and you put in the bylaw an amendment that would change those.”

“The document is sort of a living document for the town, and you have to review it and keep it current, and because it’s 100 pages long, sometimes you have to go through a complete review.”

The review is still in the very beginning stages of getting started. During their regular Sept. 22 meeting, Magrath town council allocated $10,000 towards the review. The estimated cost for the review is $20,000, and an additional $10,000 will be allocated for the review next year.

More details on the review will be forthcoming and public hearings will be announced at a later date.

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