Despite a ruling by the Municipal Government Board, Rocky View County (RVC) and the Town of Cochrane have agreed to discuss concerns over the Glenbow Ranch Area Structure Plan (ASP).

On Oct. 18, the Municipal Government Board (MGB) dismissed Cochrane's appeal of the Glenbow Ranch ASP because it was filed one day late, but the two municipalities have agreed to talk anyway.

Drew Hyndman, Cochrane's senior manager of planning services, says the MGB ruled there was no precidence for allowing late applications to proceed. He says the town had been in contact with the board for further instructions on Aug. 24 but did not receive any reply and filed on Aug. 25, too late to be considered.

"It's disappointing, but our goal through all of this was mediation and RVC has agreed to mediation regardless of the decision that occurred yesterday," says Hyndman. "We're optimistic that we can work through the issues we raised in our proposed appeal and that is what we'll proceed with."

A second ruling on whether the town can piggyback on a Calgary's appeal is expected to ruled upon in the next few weeks. The town has requested to be considered an affected party and have asked to be part of the Calgary-RVC mediation, explains Hyndman, because many of the issues identified by Cochrane are similar to those of Calgary.

The Glenbow Ranch Park Foundation Park has also requested to be considered for affected party status.

Whether or not this is successful does not take away from the town's ultimate goal, says Hyndman.

"We're happy they've agreed to mediation and we're looking forward for it. The reason for our appeal was the opportunity to have those discussions and we feel we have accomplished that."

The town's concerns centre upon increased traffic flow along Hwy. 1A west to Cochrane, pressure on services it provides to county residents and the impact upon future water licences the town will be pursuing.

RVC Reeve Greg Boehlke has previously questioned if Cochrane's claims are legitimate in regards to traffic and impact on town soft services. He says Cochrane is the author of the traffic problem by growing 45 per cent in five years while RVC has grown significantly less. Boehlke says RVC has always paid its fair share for Cochrane services utilized by their residents and have funding agreements that are revisited regularly between the two municpalities.