Cochrane Council will reacquaint themselves with Southbow Landing this evening (June 12) in council chambers.

On May 23, Cochrane council postponed the request for re-designating some land use until they could see the entire Southbow Landing Neighbourhood Plan.

James Scott, Vice President of Planning with PBA Land and Development, says they have been working with administration to bring forward a phased plan rather than seek land use approval for the entire project just due to its overall size. "It was felt it would be more appropriate rather than bring all the land use to council in May to bring what we call 'stage one' the first piece of the land use application."

Making a decision what to include to bring forward and what to leave out (at this time) took some planning; Scott says having certainty around the potential grocery store site, highway commercial district, and bulk of lands easier to service, seemed the best place to start.

The applicant is currently seeking to amend the Shopping Centre District, adjacent to the highway, in order to accommodate a major grocery store tenant. The remainder of the industrial/employment area would be re-designated in the future depending on demand and requirements at the time. Scott, shares there are parts of the lands in around the employment centre that remain in flux as the developer works through the best possible designation due to the changing economic forecast.

While PBA originally planned to seek approval for all land use in Southbow Landing, breaking up the beefy plan seemed to be the best course of action to take. Stage one as it is, will take several years to develop. "That amount of land use is not going to be built over night. Development is controlled and regulated through subdivision approvals and that stage one land use represented several phases of subdivisions which would be developed over several years."

Scott says although they are fine with bringing forward the entire plan, they don't feel they need to lock in land use in entirety for a plan which could take over 15 years to develop. "Land use is one piece of the process; pace of development is controlled by and driven by the market, the ability of infrastructure to be in place to keep up with it, and that all comes down to town and regulation of subdivision approval."

Council raised questions on whether the developer could change plans all together down the road if approvals were not in place; for example building residential or industrial on open or park space. Scott, says that would be unlikely if not impossible due to town policies, regulations, and the municipal government act.

Scott is hopeful after tonight's presentation that the green light will be given and development will be able to proceed. "We are looking forward to being back in front of council again and we hope to move forward. We do believe Southbow brings a lot of positives to the community."