High River's Mayor admits he's heard some of the questions around the slow progress being made in the new Spitzee Crossing development west and south of the Ag grounds.

Council gave first reading to a Land Use Bylaw Map change at its last meeting for The Highlands, one small section of the development, which will allow a public hearing to be set up to get feedback on the proposed changes.

Craig Snodgrass says it's not like many other big developments people have seen.

"There's a lot going around in the town with what's going on with Spitzee Development," he says. "There's a lot of intricate pieces with that development, primarily because most major developments of that size are owned by one developer. This one's unique because there's six or seven owners throughout the Spitzee Crossing development. With all the off site levies and the road work  and you're connecting with an MD road, we're working on a cost share agreement and it has been a struggle to come up something that meets the needs of High River and is also acceptable to the land owners."

Spitzee Crossing land looking to the southeast

He says it's not a five year development but more like a 20 and 30 year development and they want to make sure the town and its residents are protected well into the future.

"I'll admit it's been a long struggle for all of us and I've been involved in it since step one of being elected and we're getting it narrowed down to the final strokes here but still I know we're having troubles getting all the affected landowners in this groups to be all on board with it," he says.

He says it's important for the town to have high standards and council has a lot of pressure to be "developer friendly" but ultimately it's up to council to make the right decisions on how the town will look into the future.