Cochrane has joined other municipalities in the Calgary region to seek funding to prepare an interim growth plan and evaluation framework to begin the transition to a growth management board.

At its June 26 meeting, town council endorsed the funding application made by seven partnering municipalities. Nine Calgary region municipalities have been developing regulations over the last six months and while there's a consensus on the vast majority of provisions, an agreement has not been reached on a few key items, including this interim growth plan and evaluation framework which will guide new development while awaiting a long-term growth plan, expected to be completed by the end of 2020.

"As elected officials we've only had an opportunity to look at it one time," says Mayor Ivan Brooker. "There are things that the counties wants to see but for the most part it seems like the counties are going to be in agreement with using the Calgary Metropolitan Plan (CMP) as an interim document."

"I know the voting structure was an issue that is still in need of a little more conversation, but we don't have issue with it from the Town of Cochrane perspective."

Morgan Nagel was the lone town councillor opposed to seeking the funding and is simply opposed to growth management boards, period.

"It seems like a backdoor way of the city gaining control of all the outlining communities without us actually joining at the hip," says Nagel. "We're giving up our planning independence and once we're locked into this board all our statutory planning documents are going to have to be reviewed and approved by this board and they'll have to be in compliance with a set of rules and regulations that are created by the province."

He says its healthy to have diverse housing options available and believes larger homes and properties will be the thing of the past when the board comes into effect.

"My frustration with council is they have not complained at all and they have not pushed back one bit. Not only is our municipality not questioning anything, they're actually encouraging it and we're completely giving our authority over to this regional management board. But most of my colleagues on council love regional planning and they love density and they don't like big houses so it goes along with their agenda."

He says the province has no idea that anybody might be upset by this approach because no one speaks out. He also believes people aren't even aware this is happening.

Participation in the Calgary Metro Plan and the Calgary Regional Partnership has long been a sore point with some area municipalties with Rocky View County (RVC) being the most steadfast in their opposition. A few years ago arbitration was attempted between RVC and the Calgary Regional Partnership, but no resolution was reached.

The Alberta Government is now making participation mandatory, much like it is in the Capital Region of Edmonton. It is currently scheduled to be proclaimed during the fall sitting of the Alberta Legislature as part of the Modernized Municipal Government Act.

"That part isn't up for debate," says Mayor Brooker. "The board already exists in legislation and the communities have already been named; all that's left to be determined are the regulations."