Foothills County makes planning changes

Changes are being made to Joint Planning Area 3, east of Okotoks.

Foothills County council has taken out some portions that fall into the flood plain.

"There's some pieces of that Joint Planning Area that just aren't fitting, that need to come out," says Foothills County Reeve Delilah Miller. "There's some flood areas in there that are never going to be developed so that's the large portion of it that we're trying to have removed, because there's no sense putting it in a Joint Planning Area when we're not able to plan due to the restrictions of it being in a flood area."

Reeve Miller says there's also an area in the north part of the area that could be impacted by a hoped-for overpass at Highway 2 and 338th Avenue.

"If the overpass goes in there it'll drastically change how that area is planned. "We hope the province will make a decision on that overpass in the new budget and it'll be budgeted for so that we have some surety that it'll go forward within the next five to seven years but it is a huge capital expense and the costs seem to increase every time we talk with the province."

She says the government was at $60 million a few years ago but now it's closer to $120 million because of increasing costs.

Miller says she'd had good discussions with Alberta Transportation and says they've been looking at increasing signage to make drivers aware it's a dangerous intersection.

They're also looking at lengthening the acceleration and deceleration lanes on Highway 2 so vehicles don't get stuck in the middle of the meridian.

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