An application for a residence in Kneehill County unveiled a gap in minimum square footage requirements in the county’s Land Use Bylaw (LUB) during the Tuesday, September 21 Committee of the Whole meeting.
Manager of Planning and Development Barb Hazelton brought the discussion forward to council following a request from the August 25 Municipal Planning Commission meeting which triggered a conversation about the gap in requirements.
“The subject application was for a residence that did not meet the minimum square footage for Ag District, but was too large to meet the definition of a tiny home under the current LUB,” Hazelton said during her presentation at the September meeting.
She noted administration will propose draft changes to the LUB in the new year, and stated administration can include changes regarding the housing issue at the same time.
Hazelton’s recommendation was to make the LUB as least intrusive as possible by setting a maximum 1,000 square foot discretionary size for garden suites, keeping the maximum discretionary tiny house size at 500 square feet, and removing the 800 square foot minimum requirement from some county districts including the Agriculture and Manufactured Home districts.
Hazelton noted this would allow all single family dwellings to be permitted, so long as it was over 500 square feet and was not a secondary residence, garden suite, or tiny home.
She added other municipalities in the area have varying square footage requirements-Wheatland County, which borders Kneehill County, has no minimum square footage requirement in its Agriculture District, though Hazelton noted there were several designations within their Eagle Lake/Speargrass development.
Reeve Jerry Wittstock moved for administration to bring the proposed amendments back to council in the new year.