An open house was held Aug. 25 at the Faust Multicultural Gathering Place and gave local residents an opportunity to learn about the Swan Hills Energy Corridor Area Structure Plan.

A proposed area structure plan for the Swan Hills energy corridor shown at the event is intended to provide investors with greater certainty while guiding industrial development in the area, the project developers said.

Bailey Lapp, manager of planning services with Beairsto and Associates, an engineering and surveying company, says an area structure plan is not set in stone and can be amended to support future developments.

Lapp says the plan is designed to give potential investors a level of assurance about what kind of development is being contemplated for the area and how future proposals could fit within the county’s broader vision. She says that kind of planning document can help encourage investment because it gives businesses more certainty before they commit time and money to a project.

The planning effort, she says, was born out of a Big Lakes County push to attract investment to the Swan Hills energy corridor. The plan is focused on industrial development, rather than residential growth, and is meant to set out a framework for how development in the area could proceed.

The property would remain government-owned, while developments operating on it would be privately run. That means the land itself would stay in public ownership, while private operators could be involved in carrying out industrial activity within the planning area.
Lapp emphasized that the area structure plan should not be viewed as final or unchangeable. She says documents of this kind can be amended over time to support developments as they come forward, allowing the plan to respond to specific proposals while still providing an overall direction for the area.

Environmental considerations were also part of the discussion at the open house. Lapp says planners carried out a desktop analysis and quickly discovered the proposed area falls within core grizzly bear habitat.

That finding influenced how the plan was shaped. Lapp says the decision was made to maintain a recreational area around the perimeter of the zone, with the intention of creating a benefit for both grizzly bears and human residents of the community. The recreational area, as described at the open house, is meant to remain on the outside edge of the industrial zone.

For some people attending the open house, the discussion also turned to existing environmental concerns in the area. One local raised questions about mercury-contaminated fish from Christina Lake and asked whether development connected to the Swan Hills energy corridor plan could have any effect on that issue. Officials at the event responded by saying the issue continues to be monitored. No further details about the monitoring were provided in the information available from the open house.

The plan area includes wetlands, watercourses, wildlife-sensitive areas and lands with potential historical resources.

Field assessments and technical studies may be required to identify and confirm these features and determine applicable municipal, provincial and federal requirements, a project document from Beairsto and Associates says. Any necessary mitigation measures and approvals will need to be addressed before development or disturbance occurs, it says.

Sara Driedger
Lakeside Leader