Pressure on for Stayner boundary expansion
Clearview council has reaffirmed its direction to explore a settlement area boundary expansion for Stayner to accommodate housing, and job creation through commercial and industrial development.
Council passed a motion Monday directing staff to proceed with the Stayner Secondary Plan, in development with consultants, that will examine a study area extending roughly one kilometre around the existing built boundary, for potential long-term growth and development through to the year 2071.
CAO John Ferguson recapped that the township signed agreements with three developers for water infrastructure projects that were contingent on the expansion.
“The developers were concerned about the number of homes that they could build and the high cost of infrastructure and sought us to expand our settlement boundary area,” said Ferguson. “So we agreed in our agreements that we would work towards expanding our settlement boundary areas, and the big critical issue for this township is until the settlement boundary area is expanded the developers don’t have to pay their money for the infrastructure until that time period. So it’s an economic issue for the township to move towards expanding the settlement boundaries as soon as possible. Conducting all this work is important, but it’s also important that we pay for this project so it’s a call for an urgent process to get on this and get moving on this as soon as possible.”
GSP Group president Steve Wever said a multi- disciplinary team will study the defined radius of the current built boundary of Stayner to determine where that logical long-term boundary should be, noting it is important to get it in the right spot.
“[There are] a whole range of factors that need to really be looked at in detail for all of the land within that study area to determine where that boundary should go and then secondly, in what order should that boundary be grown outwards to address the growlands and the other opportunities for accommodating growth and development in that expanded area,” said Wever.
Cultural heritage conservation and impacts on agriculture will also be considered.
Wever said an agricultural impact assessment is a requirement under the provincial planning statement because the majority of non-urban land in the township is prime agricultural, including much of the land around Stayner. Soil quality and farm infrastructure will all be included in the assessment.
“The provincial planning statement would prefer, or directs, that municipalities prioritize expanding into non- prime land where possible but where it is all prime land we have to look at those land classifications to determine if some of the land is lower capability for agriculture than other and, if possible, try to orient the urban expansion towards the lower priority land,” said Wever.
The development of the plan, costed at $674,557, is estimated to take up to 28 months, with opportunities for community input built in.
“Recognizing the critical nature of the project we will work very closely with the township to ensure this moves along at a reasonable pace and that it’s implemented in a timely way to recognize that there is an important tie-in with your infrastructure funding,” said Wever.
In 2025, Clearview Township was allocated $35 million in provincial infrastructure funding to cover half of a Stayner water servicing project. The Klondike Park Road (KPR) wellfield facility and watermain project is estimated to cost a total of $70 million, which will be funded in partnership with members of the development community, each committing $10,077,450, and $4,772,025 from Clearview.
Mayor Doug Measures said, ”We have to lay [the plan] out now so that in the future, future legislators that are responsible for this community will have the ability to make some decisions that we’re making today.”
Image: The Stayner boundary study area is indicated by the red dotted line around the built area.
