High River has started exploring the idea of annexing another 16 properties in the northeast between 112 Street and Highway 2 and south of 498 Avenue.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says some of the landowners want to develop their property and others don't.

"This annexation, it's not a need, that we need those properties, those properties are being developed. Some want to develop, some others don't, and my question is, does the Town of High River want some say in how that's going to look," he says. "Should we bring those properties, that everybody actually already thinks, unless you own there, everybody else thinks they're already in the Town of High River now, but do we want some say in how those properties look, being a gateway to High River and along Highway 2 that's visible, you know the aesthetics of our Town."

A preliminary survey of the landowners came back with mixed results and a lot of questions.

Snodgrass says in the end it's up to those residents whether they want to be part of the town.

"There's a lot of things that change when you go from being in the MD to being part of the Town, obviously your tax assessments are drastically different," Snodgrass points out. "There's a lot of things at play for those guys that they need more information, on like what does servicing look like? Who's going to do it? Well, it's not the Town of High River that annexes land and then plugs in services like sewer, water and storm water systems the next day. That's led by developers.".

Administration will set up a meeting with property owners so they'll know exactly what they're getting into if the decide they want to move forward with annexation.

Councillor Don Moore says the Town really needs 100 per cent buy in from the property owners although both councillor Emile Blokeland and Mayor Snodgrass said that's not likely to happen.

The Mayor says he prefers to see how the meetings with the landowners shake out before deciding what percentage he, or any future council should need to move forward.

 

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