Peace River is a community with natural features and distinctive development patterns that uniquely influence future development opportunities. Town administration has initiated a comprehensive “refresh” of the Land Use Bylaw (LUB) to ensure that it is effective in regulating land uses and development within the Town.
The Land Use Bylaw (LUB) is the “book of rules” for development of land and buildings in the Town of Peace River. The contents of the LUB must follow the direction set by the Municipal Development Plan. The LUB regulates how land can be used, what and where buildings can be built. The LUB aims to balance landowner’s rights with the interests of the community.
Land Use Bylaws should be a dynamic document that responds to development trends and changing community interests. The last major update to the bylaw was in 2012. Administration has identified a number of issues with the current bylaw. The LUB is being reviewed to provide greater clarity and consistency in an easy to read, updated document that reflects contemporary land use planning and development practices. The review of other land use bylaws within the province has brought forward a number of best practices that the Town aims to integrate into the bylaw. These issues and identified best practices merit an overhaul of the bylaw, rather than continued individual amendments.
The proposed changes will have little effect on the majority residents and landowners unless you are expecting to undertake a development in the future. However, the refresh may update development related processes and you may see certain things done differently, in particular how the community is notified of development approvals.
Community involvement and participation in the refresh process is essential to ensuring that the LUB regulates development with a made-in-Peace River approach to our unique land use challenges and needs.
Process
The “refresh” of the LUB is a significant project. The key process milestones are outlined below.
