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April 28: Town closes indoor facilities to maintain essential services

The Town of Okotoks is taking the proactive measure of closing all indoor town facilities to the public from April 29 to May 14 inclusive.…

Land Use Bylaw Rewrite

Information Session

The Town is hosting an online information session May 13. It will include a short presentation and time for questions after. You can register in advance for one of two options:
7:30 pm or 8:15 pm

Registration is now closed. A link to the information session will be posted here later today.

 

About the project

Draft Land Use Bylaw

Draft Land Use Map

After a comprehensive review, and extensive public participation, the updated Draft Land Use Bylaw is now available for review. A public hearing for the draft land use bylaw is currently targeted for June 2021.

The current Okotoks Land Use Bylaw was adopted in 1998. At that time, Council had recently adopted a finite growth model premised on managing growth within the carrying capacity of the Sheep River.  A lot has changed since 1998. Since that time the Town has shifted from a finite growth model to a continued growth philosophy, undertaken a large annexation, and adopted a new Municipal Development Plan, which sets a new direction for the future growth of Okotoks.

An updated draft Bylaw is now available for review and feedback:

Draft 2020 Land Use Bylaw

Draft Bylaw Map

The proposed new Land Use Bylaw dramatically simplifies the number of land use districts and the use types allowed within these districts.  The bylaw focuses more on the form of buildings than the specific use of the buildings and is designed to support long-term change when new and redevelopment occurs. In addition the draft bylaw:

  • Provides a larger focus on pedestrians, bicyclists, and other active transportation users with the removal of minimum parking standards and new pedestrian and bicycle access standards;
  • Is highly visual and more user-friendly than the current bylaw, with reduced cross-referencing and simpler requirements;
  • More flexibility to allow for innovative development forms and a greater ability to adapt to market changes; and
  • Will contain fewer and more flexible land use districts, reducing the current 34 land use districts to 9 new more inclusive districts 

To ensure that the new Land Use Bylaw considers the impacts and opportunities for Okotoks residents and stakeholders, a two phase engagement process was undertaken to solicit feedback from residents, businesses and affected stakeholders in the drafting and refinement of the bylaw.

Phase 2: November 17 to December 8, 2020

The second phase of engagement solicited feedback on the draft bylaw to see if we got it right and to determine what adjustments needed to be made to the draft document.

Phase 2: What we heard report

Phase 2: Engagement summary

Phase 1: January 20 to February 14, 2020

The first phase of engagement occurred in February 2020 and the feedback received informed the development of an initial draft bylaw in November 2020.  

Phase 1: Summary

 

LUB timeline

FAQs