Wheatland County is preparing for the future as it revamps its Land Use Bylaw.
    It has been about 9 years since the county last reviewed its bylaw, and according to Colton Nickel, intermediate planner for Wheatland, much of the work has to do with redesignating land use.
    “We are rezoning about 1,500 parcels in the county,” said Nickel.
    “Although land use bylaw has a lot of new regulations, there is a lot of streamlining and removing of regulations as well to encourage business and economic development.”
    This rezoning is to help streamline the bylaw.
    “We are proposing a bunch of new land use districts in this bylaw. So, we find some of the parcels in the county fit better within those new districts. For example, a fruit winery would fit better in something called a Rural Business District. We are trying to promote more agri-tourism opportunities,” he said.
    For simplicity’s sake, they have combined a few districts. For example in hamlets, there are three different residential districts. These have been combined into one.
    Another new designation will be for Garden Suites.
    “We have been getting a lot of calls from people wanting to have their in-laws or adult children live on the same parcel, so we have created the “Garden Suite,” a secondary dwelling that would be allowed on the same parcel. So, if you are outside a hamlet you could have a Garden Suite up to 1,200 square feet, and in the hamlets, a little bit smaller. It allows for intergenerational living which is becoming much more popular, or serves as a secondary income. Unfortunately, in North America, our zoning bylaws have been based around the nuclear family, which isn’t really how most of the word works in terms of living arrangements.”
    Another change is to eliminate animals unit requirements so there is no limits on the number of animals residents can have on a parcel.
     “We just found there was a lot of scenarios’ that our existing animals unit rules didn’t capture,” he said.
    Another change will eliminate home office land use permits.
    “If you are working out of your home office, and are literally just on your computer in your home, technically you have to get a secondary use business permit. So in the new Land Use Bylaw we are cleaning that up so you don’t have to come in and get a permit if you are just working out of your home office,” said Nickel.
    To get to this point, Nickel says they have had extensive public consultations, beginning back in the spring of 2015. They hosted two open houses as well as had an online survey, which residents could complete. In the fall, there were more consultations.
    “We have been doing a lot on social media with Facebook, Twitter and our website, so it has been pretty extensive,” said Nickel.
    The initial public hearing for land use bylaw was on September 20.  It was recessed because so many people spoke, and on December 13 they are continuing the hearing.
    They are hoping to have the bylaw receive second and third reading in the new year.