Cypress Council May 17 meeting briefs 

Posted on May 25, 2022 by Ryan Dahlman

By Anna Smith Commentator/Courier

Cypress County Council met May 17 with a land use amendment being defeated. Land Use Amendment Bylaw 2022/11 was defeated 2–7. 

The bylaw would have amended Agricultural IDP District 1 “A1-IDP” to Country Residential District 2 “CR-2.” 

It was noted by council that while there was already residential near the area, the proposal does not comply with the Tri-Area Intermunicipal Development Plan (IDP) or the Commercial or Industrial Area Policy. 

Several council members noted that while it may be “common sense” to allow for the change, to pass the bylaw would open the door for other requests that had been previously denied or otherwise were non-compliant, and the County does need to abide by the IDP. 

“We have lots of other people that have wanted us to change our opinions and change and do other things in other areas because they don’t like the IDP and we’ve never done it, we’ve always followed the IDP,” said Reeve Dan Hamilton. “If we open up a can of worms and do this one thing. That door is going to be lined up with other people that we’ve turned down in the past and you guys did it for them. We want you to do it for us. And that’s a pretty long list.” 

Conversely, Land Use Amendment Bylaw 2022/12 was carried 8-1 for both second and third readings, with the disagreement noted to be in error due to pressing the wrong button on the electronic voting system by a member of Council. Director of Public Works Kim Dalton noted some segregation on Range Road 70 which will be a project within the coming weeks as well as some degradation of the asphalt on the same road north of Highway 3. 

Council authorized the transfer of a Water Licence AEP Approval to the Graeburn Raw Water Pipeline Society, as well as the infrastructure of the water line. 

An agreement was entered in 2019 for the operation of the raw waterline under the County’s licence, and in April of this year, the Society engaged MPE engineering to review the hydraulic capacity of the pipeline to support a proposed transfer. Both motions passed 9-0.