Mayor Ivan Brooker believes the current annexation discussions between the town and Rocky View County (RVC) shouldn't be impacted by the two municipal bodies disagreements over the Glenbow Ranch Area Structure Plan (ASP).

The town is currently discussing the friendly annexation of 158 acres of land on the northwest border of Cochrane from the county to allow for a future high school plus a possible recreational development. The land was purchased several years ago by the Rocky View School Division in hopes of using about 25 to 30 acres for Cochrane's next high school.

While the elected officials committee isn't expected to meet until after the fall election, respective staff of both jurisdictions continue to work on preparing the way, says Mayor Brooker.

"They're doing some of their homework right now. With the election, we'll probably wait until October to have further elected officials meetings, but we do have to jump on it right away. We still have to help the school division plan for future high school and we can't let any of these things lie for very long. We have to come to a resolution."

Last week, both Cochrane and Calgary posted their appeals to the Glenbow Ranch ASP. In the case of Cochrane, the town expressed concerns over an added traffic load of Hwy. 1A, additional demand for town soft services by future county residents and are concerned it may impact their efforts to obtain further water licences to handle future growth.

Mayor Brooker says Calgary and Cochrane share some similar concerns.

"We know all those residents are either going to Calgary or Cochane, so we both share in those concerns on how Rocky View will deal with us fairly for providing those services."

For the most part, Brooker says the county has been fair in compensation and he expects there will be discussion centring around the use of the eco-centre when that agreement comes up for renewal in 2018. He'd also like to see RVC contribute more to the cost of constructing the aquatic and curling centre.

"We have very good data on most everything, how many users go the eco centre from the county, how many users go to the aquatic centre from the county. We will try and make sure that it's fair to our residents and their residents on a financial contribution."

"I would still like to see more money from the county go to towards the aquatic and curling centre, of course, that's no surprise. I asked for $5 million but we received $2 million. I fully anticipate we'll continue to make those requests and we'll see about the other stuff."

When fully developed, the ASP is expected to accommodate 13,400 people by the county's latest figures. They estimate full build out will take 20 to 25 years.

Brooker doesn't believe the town's request are unreasonable and doesn't believe the Glenbow Ranch discussions will impact the annexation talks because there are no hard feelings.

"As we go through all of these processes, we don't believe our asks our unreasonable, we do believe that we're being fair in our processes and our asks. In all the conversations I've had with Reeve Greg Boehlke, we get along great, we've had respectful conversations. Greg understands our concerns and it's just a matter of working through the processes at the county and hopefully we can come to resolution on all of these things. Maybe at the end of the day there's something that everybody can benefit from."

 He expects the Glenbow Ranch ASP appeal won't resume until January after the new councils are brought up to speed. 

SEE MORE:

Cochrane, Calgary Appealing Glenbow Ranch ASP