The first comprehensive review of the city of Lethbridge’s land-use bylaw since the current document’s inception in 1986 is entering its initial stage.
“It’s been updated a bunch since then, but really we haven’t taken a whole new holistic look since then,” city community planner Ross Kilgour said.
The bylaw regulates the development of private land throughout the city, impacting how neighbourhoods are developed.
“The (land-use bylaw) is really like the DNA of Lethbridge,” Kilgour said.
“It has a huge effect on critical issues like housing affordability, economic development and sustainability.”
Kilgour says the renewal project will make the bylaw easier to understand and more user-friendly than the current version.
As part of the current phase, the city is asking for public feedback on social uses, like emergency shelters, transitional housing and social services.
“This is an opportunity for us to just talk to people and find out what you would like the future of Lethbridge to be like, what types of development you’d like to see in your areas and so on,” Kilgour said.
According to Kilgour, Phase 2 will focus on rewriting the bylaw and will require more feedback from residents. That’s expected to take place sometime next year.
The project was approved as part of the city’s latest capital budget at a total cost of $1.2 million and has a three-year timeline for completion.