September 10. 2019
At the September 9 Regular Council meeting, Council passed the second and third (final) reading of the bylaw (26-19) to end the ratepayer funded portion of the ecovillage within the Homestead Project. As such, the ecovillage component of the Homestead project, as currently proposed, will not be moving forward.
As third reading of Bylaw 26-19 has passed, MOTION 19.C.258 and MOTION 19.C.259 from the May 27, 2019 Regular Council Meeting, have been repealed.
August 20, 2019
At the August 19 Regular Council meeting, Council passed first reading of a bylaw that would stop ratepayer funding for the ecovillage portion of the Homestead Project. The bylaw was in response to a petition opposed to the project that administration determined met the Municipal Government Act’s requirements for sufficiency.
Bylaws require three readings in order to become official. The second and third readings for this bylaw will be brought forward at the September 9 meeting. If Council passes second and third reading of the bylaw in September, the proposed 10.8 acre parcel of land in the D’Arcy subdivision will no longer be planned to include the ecovillage. The Town will go back to the drawing board to determine the best municipal purpose for that land.Â
Thursday, August 1, 2019
A petition against the ecovillage, first brought forward by the Okotoks Ratepayers Community Group in late June, received approximately 3,200 signatures, which was 300 more than were required to meet the criteria for a valid petition. The Town was required to determine sufficiency of the petition in accordance with section 225 of the Municipal Government Act (MGA). This included eliminating any names that did not meet the requirements of the MGA within 45 days of the day the petition was submitted.
Once a petition is deemed to be sufficient, it's then presented to Council. Within 30 days of receiving a validated petition, Council must either follow the wording of the petition or take the issue to a referendum.
Those opposed to the petition also had 30 days from the day Council received the original petition to submit a counter petition.