Growth & development will always happen.
How it happens is the critical question.

Growth and development will always happen. It is up to each new council to set the direction within the Town Plan as to how it intends to manage this growth.

With the new Town Plan completed in 2023, the main theme that rose to the top was to “Retain The Small Town Feel”. This is the feel High River has that we all love to live in - the challenge is, as people move here to enjoy the “feel” we have, it also makes the “Small Town” … bigger. Managing our growth is a constant challenge in order to retain our small-town feel.

Council should focus on higher-quality development that forms the complete community, resulting in smart growth and a higher-quality end product. When working together with the developers/builders, we always discuss what is working and what is not in terms of process.

Smart growth does not mean limiting growth.

Whenever infrastructure is built by the developer, it is soon handed over to the Town to maintain and replace when needed. Regulations and processes are in place to ensure the infrastructure is built properly. If it is not built properly, the taxpayer pays to fix it.

Below you will find the existing developments currently being worked on and where they stand in the process and councils direction.

Current & Proposed Developments

Land Use Bylaw Review

The redevelopment of 605 Macleod Trail has attracted a lot of attention from our community. The developer who owns the property wishes to remove the home and redevelop it with a project that would provide higher-density housing. Members of the public have created a working group to discuss not only this project, but also other future redevelopment projects in this area. Increasing density is fine - at what scale and in what area is where the discussion starts.

At the September 8th meeting council approved a motion directing administration to initiate a Land Use Bylaw review.

Spitzee Crossing

Current state:

The Spitzee Crossing Area Structure Plan was approved in September 2013. Since then, there have also been two Neighbourhood Outline Plans approved within Spitzee Crossing. One for Highwood Ranch (Approved in 2018) and one for The Highlands (Approved in 2017). The ball is in the developer's court as to whether development begins. The main hurdle they have is the cost-sharing agreement between all of the landowners as to how the underground infrastructure is paid for. The Town has their draft proposal, but not all landowners agree on it at this time.

Underground infrastructure investment cost is an important consideration for developers to begin this project. Developers will need to make the initial multi-million dollar investment into water, sewer and storm water drainage. This investment is estimated to be well over $10 million. Availability of capital dollars, housing market demands, and site inventory in other current developments, all go into a developer’s decision to start a project of this magnitude. Spitzee Crossing is a complicated area, as there are many different landowners with different plans on when they will develop.

Click here to access the Spitzee Crossing Area Structure Plan.

NE Area Structure Plan

This is a very large area in the North East that is currently going through the process of creating the Area Structure Plan. This involves consultation with Council, landowners and the public at large. The ASP will define the layout of the development and services.

Click here for more information on the NE Area Structure Plan.

Remple Homes - Red Tail Rise

Following the 2013 flood, the Beachwood Neighbourhood became part of the Floodway Relocation Program. As Beachwood was a higher-end development, and council was worried all of these residents would leave town, council made the decision to forego the Area Structure Plan for Phase 1 of this development in order to speed up the process. This was done under emergency circumstances and is honestly a decision I would not support again. Because of the lack of the ASP, it made it very difficult for both the developer and the Town to get this development going. I do not feel we sped anything up. Future phases of this development must have an ASP developed for the whole area before they can proceed.

The lesson I learned was that, regardless of the circumstances, Council must be very disciplined with every development.

Red Tail is well underway and is quickly becoming an excellent asset to High River.

Montrose

A very large, and well-planned project by Dream Developments. Council has worked closely with the developer to work out issues associated with future phases and when they should proceed.

Hamptons

The Hamptons has had it’s share of issues in the past. This was mainly due to infrastructure construction issues that Council had to draw a hard line in the sand. The developer was forced to fix the infrastructure issues prior to receiving the Final Completion Certificates. This delayed future phases from proceeding, but was needed to protect the Town and residents, so that the infrastructure was built properly.

Today, it is an excellent development that is moving forward with its future phases.

This is one of the past lessons that future Councils can learn from. It takes discipline to ensure the end product is of the quality we expect in High River.