Intermunicipal Development Plans
Intermunicipal Development Plans (IDP's) are statutory plans containing broad-based policy that are prepared by two or more neighbouring municipalities. Their main purpose is to ensure that future growth reflects the mutual and individual interests of the municipalities involved. Typically, the focus is on the boundary area between rural and urban municipalities.
IDP's may deal with the future land uses within the IDP area, and any other matter relating to the physical, social or economic development within the plan area. They must, however, include procedures for the implementation of the Plan, dispute resolution and amending the IDP.
Leduc County currently has an IDP with the City of Leduc (adopted in 2012), the Town of Devon (adopted in 2011), and with the Town of Beaumont (adopted in 1998).
Intermunicipal development plans are predicated on growth studies. As urban and rural municipalities grow, their demands put on roads, water and sewer pipes, as well as impacts on the environment change. Many of these changes can have 'spill-over' effects that impact neighbouring municipalities. For instance, as a municipality embedded in Leduc County grows, it may generate more traffic on County roads as people move around. In order to properly address these impacts, the municipalities need to coordinate new investments in infrastructure and land use planning. This is a typical reason for undertaking a Joint Growth Study.
Leduc County recognizes that each growth strategy must be fiscally, ecologically, socially, and economically feasible over the long term. This means that some of the ways communities have been accommodating growth over the past sixty years are no longer viable. Solutions are to be found, and Leduc County believes that engaging the public in growth studies discussion is definitively part of the solution.
