Olds council has approved the rezoning of a section of land in the north east corner of Town from Future Urban (FUD) to Light Industrial (ILD).
Mayor Dan Daley points out that this means a developer could now apply for a building permit and it starts the process of all the assessments and research needed by provincial entities to evaluate in order for a project to move forward. He says “we’ll be able to see what some of these affects are going to be on our environment, on our road systems, on our infrastructure and make solid concrete decisions with input from the community. Once we get all of this information, of course, we aren’t going to do it in a silo – these decisions will be made in conjunction with input from our community.”
He notes that Monday’s public hearing at the council meeting was well attended. Mayor Daley says “there was a lot of legitimate concerns that were brought up there and they were all heard by council and council did not take any of this decision making lightly. We are looking forward what we call the meat of the situation and start getting some real answers from these assessments and studies that are going to take place now before the development permit gets approved.”
According to Mayor Daley, some of the public is feeling that this is moving along at a very rapid pace. He says “myself I think now we are going to start getting down into the details of the project and we are going to start getting some information about the actual concerns citizens have as far as this project.”
At the public hearing a handful of citizens spoke in favour of the zoning change, plus more than a dozen spoke out and several letters of correspondence that had been submitted were read as well for those either in opposition or deemed affected by it. Council approved second reading unanimously and third reading was passed by a 5-2 vote. Mayor Daley says “I would like to let the public know that, you know, council is also citizens of Olds as well, and we love this community and that we are going to do what is best for the community. We’re not going to put our infrastructure, our utilities, our environment at risk and we’re going to keep Olds a great place to live from now and into the future.”
Last month, Synapse Data Center Inc. revealed its proposed plans for a $10 billion private-sector investment to construct Canada’s largest data centre in north east Olds.
Listen to 96.5 The Ranch’s conversation with Mayor Dan Daley.
