Environmentally Sensitive Land Throughout Leduc
County Unprotected In Proposed Land Use Bylaw
LEDUC COUNTY,
AB – August 8, 2006– The Friends of
Leduc Area Greenspace (FLAG) citizen’s coalition wants all Leduc County
residents to be aware of a drastic land use bylaw change that is soon going to
Leduc County Council for approval. The
draft land use bylaw proposes to fold all currently protected areas into a new
land use district, Agricultural 2, which has a number of allowable and discretionary
uses within it—notably including Natural Resource Extraction. The only other ‘protected’ land use
designation in the new bylaw, Lake Watershed, lacks protection in the same
manner that Agricultural 2 does. This
means that the May 2006 Draft Land
Use Bylaw does NOT HAVE ANY land use designation that has been designed
specifically to preserve the land in its natural state for our future
generations and wildlife.
FLAG calls upon Leduc County Council to return
the Draft Land Use Bylaw to Leduc County administration for an overhaul in
regards to the handling of environmentally sensitive areas. These areas need to protected in order to
preserve both the rapidly shrinking natural areas in the county and the critically
important watershed areas of Alberta—like the North Saskatchewan River. An environmental overhaul needs to be done
in cooperation with such environmental stakeholders as the residents of Leduc
County, Leduc County’s own Environmental Committee, the Alberta Wildlife
Federation, and the North Saskatchewan Watershed Alliance.
FLAG is also concerned with the timing of
this initiative. The entire process of
public/neighboring county notification & input has been timed to occur
during the busy summer months of July and August when most people are taking
vacations, working the land, or otherwise busy.
Please see our Statement of Position,
available on our website and upon request, for more detail. Our spokesperson, Tom Lampman, is available
for phone (985-2837/818-9019) and in-person interviews.
To contact FLAG:
Email: flag@kanotech.com (preferred, as we will be able to reply quickly)
24 hour voicemail: 780-980-8101
Web address: www.kanotech.com/flag