Southern Country Residential Area Structure Plan

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Leduc County is preparing the Southern Country Residential Area Structure Plan (SCRASP) to provide the framework for the long-term growth and development of the area for future planning.

Within Leduc County there has been an increased interest related to county residential development. To accommodate this interest while balancing the impact on existing residential development, municipal infrastructure and environmental features, Leduc County is guiding development by creating the SCRASP. The plan will then provide direction for the creation of outline plans, which will provide more detailed development policies.

The SCRASP plan area is located in the eastern portion of Leduc County, approximately five minutes northwest of New Sarepta and 20 minutes east of the City of Leduc. The majority of land within the plan area is used for agricultural purposes or contains wetlands or wooded areas. There are some existing country residential subdivisions however, due to the absence of a guiding plan for the area they are largely self-contained.

The objectives of the project are as follows: 

• Establish a vision for the plan area.
• Spatially plan for density, phasing, and associated built forms.
• Provide the framework for land use patterns and future utilities.
• Delineate and prioritize sub-planning areas.
• Integrate land use/development patterns with adjacent jurisdictions.
• Provide development certainty to the residents and investors.
• Understand the servicing needs and how servicing would be provided to future, and possibly existing, development.
• Understand the fiscal impact on the county from additional development within the plan area.
  
  

DRAFT Southern Country Residential Area Structure Plan

The SCRASP has been revised to align with the feedback we received after the first round of public participation in 2021. These changes include:

1. The creation of a reserve area covering the eastern portion of the ASP starting from Range Road 232 through to Highway 21 as shown in the below presentation. The reserve area allows for future country residential development when one of the following two things occurs:
   • a development is proposed that will be serviced through municipal (piped) water and septic services, or;
   • when the initial plan area is fully developed.
2. Greater clarity regarding the expected servicing for the plan area. In the initial plan area, servicing will be allowed with private services so long as the long term sustainability of those services can be demonstrated. Specifically this has translated into policy that states the following:
   • A ban on the use of purely truck based services (water and septic) such as individual cisterns and stand alone holding tanks. The County has seen a dramatic increase in the costs of truck provisioned services to the landowner in recent years and will not support this type of development in the plan area. 
   • Tanks/cisterns as part of larger or local systems are not prohibited. An example of this would be a “tank and field” septic system. Additionally well based water systems including communal wells that feed into cisterns would be generally supported by policy.

The video below explains in further detail the changes made since the last draft.

PROVIDE YOUR INPUT

Do you have any comments or feedback about the updated draft of the Southern Country Residential Area Structure Plan? 

We're collecting feedback until Friday, Nov. 25 to incorporate into the document in advance of the public hearing process. 

Click the button below to share your thoughts online; alternately, you can also provide feedback via phone or email by contacting the project team at 780-979-2106 or npryce@v3co.ca. 

NEXT STEPS

The Southern Country Residential ASP is slated to be brought forward for first reading on Dec. 13, 2022 with the public hearing and following readings anticipated to be completed in early 2023. This web page will be updated with those dates as they are finalized. Click the green subscribe button below to be notified of changes as they are posted.