Purpose of the Land Use Bylaw
The Land Use Bylaw is the key tool used to
regulate and control the use and development of all land and buildings in the
Town of Lacombe. It is at the heart of the
development permit approval process and all land use redesignation applications. It is adopted by Council and can only be
amended by Council.
The Land Use Bylaw is an important tool for
implementing the policies of the Municipal Development Plan, our Area Structure
Plans, the Heart of Town Area Redevelopment Plan, Outline Plans and other
policy studies and reports. The Land Use Bylaw regulates the
neighbourhoods where you live and work, by determining the types of uses, the
mix of housing types and densities, the location of shops and services as well
as specific
requirements such as parking, landscaping and building height. The
Land Use Bylaw impacts everyone in Lacombe at some point and to varying degrees
- from building a fence or deck, to starting a business here, or calling Lacombe
"home".
For every "use" of land or building there is a definition provided to
help you determine if your proposal or business is considered compatible within
that "District" so Part 6 - Definitions should be
consulted. These "uses" are found in the appropriate Land Use
"Districts" (Parts 9 -12) and are either "permitted" or
"discretionary" and are fixed and cannot be changed without an
amendment to the Land Use Bylaw. These amendments can either be text changes which
would provide for your "use" or a redesignation (sometimes called rezoning) of the site. The rules or
regulations governing the standard for development are more flexible and may be
varied, through a "relaxation" by the Development Authority, which may
either be the Development Officer or the Municipal Planning Commission. Direct Control
or Special Districts (Part 13) are
sometimes used in areas where Council wishes to
exercise particular control over development. Overlay Districts are
employed to implement certain development goals contemplated within a
statutory plan or other plans and studies adopted by Council.
Using the Land Use Bylaw
It is important to understand that the Land Use
Bylaw is a multi-layered document that must be read and used as a whole, in
interpreting what limits or constraints there may be on a specific site.
The "Districts" described in the Land Use Bylaw cannot stand alone and
each one is extensively cross referenced to other parts. For
example, the Central Commercial (C1) District interrelates with Part 8 - General
Rules for all Districts, which among other things establishes the parking and loading requirements.
As well, Part 7 which deals with signs should be referred to if you wish to erect
a freestanding or fascia sign. Portions of the Downtown area are
also subject to Part 14 - Overlays, which place more restrictive provisions on new
and redevelopment proposals within both the Main Street Historic Area and the
older residential area surrounding it.
How to Use the Web Land Use Bylaw
A number of web based tools have been included
in our Land Use Bylaw, to assist in navigating through the many
"Parts" - which happen to be separate web pages and are listed
vertically on the side navigational bar at the left side of the page.
At the top of each
page is a tool that gets you back to the Table of Contents quickly as well as
"back" and "next" arrows that assist in navigation through
the Land Use Bylaw. Once you have the Part on your screen simply "right
click" on the Heading to obtain the text for that Part.
For Example:
Part 3 - Development Application Process &
Decision has been hyper-linked to a Adobe Acrobat document that can be viewed,
scrolled through, and downloaded or printed in the format that appears on the screen. Each of the
subsections are also linked to "bookmarks" within the document and are
found on the left hand side.
Key Areas
The Land Use Bylaw has been structured into
Parts so that the user can easily determine what parts need to be referenced for
a particular development proposal. The Land Use Bylaw is divided into 15 parts, each
one deals with different aspects of land use control.
PARTS 1 - 5 deal with administrative and
procedural issues. These parts contain information that tell you how to
apply for a development permit, what forms, fees, and information should be
included with your application and who and how a decision is made. There
are provisions for enforcement and penalties as well as details on what steps
are required in applying for an amendment to the Land Use Bylaw is also found
here.
PARTS 6 - 8 deal with
general requirements for developments that are all encompassing, that somehow
relate to the Land Use Bylaw as a whole and are not site or district specific.
Part 6 is where you will find definitions and Part 7 contains all the relevant
information about signs. Part
8 - is very important as it contains rules that are relevant to every type of
development.
PARTS 9 - 13 contain the standards and
regulations for all the Land Use "Districts" within the Town. It
is important that the regulations be referred to when leasing a portion of a
building as these may require a development permit if they are
contemplating a "change of use" or "intensity of
use". All applications for a Development Permit, are impacted
by whether the use is "permitted" or "discretionary"
as the Development Officer approves Permitted uses and the Municipal
Planning Commission approves the latter. As decisions affecting
discretionary uses or permitted uses with variances must be advertised
this will impact the length of time required to process your application.
Also these types of Development Permit uses may be appealed by those affected by the decision.
For more details on these processes consult Parts 3 and 4.
PART 14 contains the Overlay Districts -
To confirm if these provisions affect your property you must consult Part 15
which are the Land Use District Maps. Overlays are represented on the Maps
with a hatch pattern. For example parts of the Wolf Creek and Wes Jackson
Industrial Parks are constrained by the "Flood Risk Area Regulations
District" in addition to the provisions found in the Industrial (I1 or I2)
Districts. PART
15 consists of the KEY MAP and the detailed 8 1/2" x 11" Land Use District Maps.
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