Town's environmental growth limits under development pressure

Published in the Waterloo Region Record, August 1, Okanagan Saturday, August 5, The Packet (Clarenville, NL), August 11, and the Okotoks Western Wheel, August 27, 2008

By Doug Firby
Alberta Commentator
Troy Media Corporation

Doug Firby The town of Okotoks, Alberta, earned international praise over the past 10 years for its bold refusal in 1998 to allow growth beyond its means.

It was the subject of a March 2007 CBC National documentary, in which Peter Mansbridge toured the town and talked to officials about council’s unique decision to put a hold on its population to 30,000 residents. “The town is one of the few communities in the world to limit its growth to what its environment can handle,” Mansbridge declared.

“We chose to take the path less traveled,” councillor Ed Sands smugly said on-camera, as he strolled beside the Sheep River, the modest mountain stream that provides the city with its drinking water and must accept its effluent.

Just a year later, it’s gut-check time.

The little town that was determined not to become a bedroom community to Calgary – the elephantine neighbor just 20 minutes to the north – is about to reconsider that population cap. Mayor Bill McAlpine said growth pressures, combined with revised population projections, are causing the town to take a second look at its policy on new residents.

Back in 1998, when that limit was set, officials predicted the 10,000-strong town would take 15-20 years to reach the heady limit of 30,000 souls.

"People buying acreages near the town don't have to worry about urban creep. It won't happen," town manager Will Pearce, said at the time. "We don't want to become a city, or be a bedroom community of Calgary. We want our own identity."

Pearce and his ilk were wrong. Within three years of Okotoks implementing the policy, Alberta’s economy went on a resource-fueled tear that has yet to abate. As the price per barrel of oil soared past what seemed just three years ago to be the impossible landmark of $60 and on to the unimaginable $140 this year, investment poured into the oilpatch, and real estate values across the province soared.

No community within an hours’ drive of Calgary – where the oil industry houses its headquarters – could insulate itself from the ripple effect.

In fact, geographer Brad Stelfox has projected that, at current trends, the urban boundary of Calgary will need just a few years to envelope the communities of Airdrie, 20 minutes to the north, Cochrane, equally far west, Strathmore to the east, and, in the south, the green flagship community of Okotoks. The ensuing urban conflagration will eclipse even Phoenix, the American poster-child for unsustainable living.

Environmentalists are naturally disappointed that Okotoks has blinked on its no-compromise stand, but the move always seemed a bit incongruous in a province where imposing limits is considered akin to disloyalty.

The high-minded goals now face a solid reality check: When urban growth pressures are involved, there are clear limits to setting limits.

In fact, the small town identity of Okotoks has fallen increasingly under siege as more and more wealthy Calgarians have been drawn to its small-town charms, and brought with them expectations of the convenience of nearby Canadian Tires, WalMarts and Superstores.

In fact, Okotoks is a convincing metaphor for the bipolar nature of Albertans, who are on one hand enamored with the accoutrements that are the byproduct of their oil riches and yet are increasingly self-conscious about the public image associated with their 4X4 lifestyles.

For their part, Alberta’s embattled environmentalists have made their peace – Alberta’s chapter of the Sierra Club, for example, says allowing the population of Okotoks to grow is not so bad, as long as the environmental footprint is kept to a minimum.

For Ontarians, this drama is déjà vu, echoing the steamroller development that transformed once charming farms towns like King City north of Toronto and Milton to the west into an endless mass of suburbs and shopping plazas.

Okotoks’ urban Maginot Line may not hold, but if civic leaders must relent to urban sprawl, they want it to have a verdant tinge. The 2007 Drake Landing project, for example, has among the most sustainable mass-produced homes on the continent, with such features as solar panels mounted on rooftops and geothermal heating and cooling.

Now, it’s up to the residents to have their say. They will address the recommendations put forward by the regional land use plan over the coming months, with a final decision planned for June 2009.

Will they yield to the forces of development? Bets are not without a fight.

Doug Firby is former Editorial Pages Editor with the Calgary Herald.

Keywords: urban development, limit to growth, population cap, under siege, embattled environmentalists

News Beats: Environment, politics