Some concerns were raised at Monday's public hearing on the 12th Avenue corridor.

High River Town Council is considering adding guidelines for new commercial buildings on 12th Ave. between Highway 2 and Centre Street with the hopes of improving the quality and aesthetics of the developments.

Resident, Emile Rocher says he doesn't think the plan will help.

He says it is important engineers aren't stuck making things work after the architects have made plans as this has been inefficient in the past.

"That is typically what used to happen. The architects would design it so it would look beautiful, and they'd say to the engineers 'make the damn thing work'. That isn't the path to efficient design. It has to be a much more collaborative process with the goals well established and the client on board."

Rocher says the focus of these guidelines is beauty rather than efficiency, much like cars from the 60's.

"I don't think it's helping them at all. The emphasis is on chrome and fins, using the analogy of the old cars that people thought looked so great years ago. The blessing of that was they only lasted ten years, but these buildings are going to last a lot longer than that."

Rocher says all of these requirements can cost a developer as much as creating a building that requires no net energy. He says the bylaw as it is currently written contains measures that take away from the designer's ability to achieve high efficiency standards. He notes builders don't always consider efficiency as a priority.

"One of the biggest barriers to efficiency in the built environment, especially in commercial buildings which these are, is that often the builder is not the tennant. They're not the people who're paying the bills. They're not the people who are going to live with the discomfort in the building."

Rocher says buildings that comply with the guildeline of having 60 percent glass on the side facing 12th Ave. will most likely have problems with heating and energy use.