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Cranbrook, BC (December 1, 2023) – The City’s first draft of the proposed new Official Community Plan (OCP) which is circulating for public consultation through public events and online has raised some questions around a hypothetical roadway through the Community Forest. The draft OCP can be found online @ cranbrook2024.ca with public input welcomed until Sunday, December 10, 2023. The first draft of the OCP including the proposed roads that is being circulated publicly is intended to receive public comments. The City confirms that there are no current plans or proposals to develop a road within the Community Forest.

The City is also working with the College of the Rockies (COTR) on their road project to extend College Way through to 30th Ave North, which is located on College owned property and funded by the Province. The college issued a media release on this road project.  The new COTR road is shown in the image below.

“Under the Local Government Act, we are required to identify in an OCP, the rough location of any major road, sewer, or water system for the future.  The theoretical roads identified in the draft OCP schedules are based on generational hypothetical growth scenarios,” says Rob Veg, Manager of Planning with the City of Cranbrook.

“If a situation arose where the City’s existing road network, like Victoria Avenue as an example, would not be able to handle the increased traffic volumes of this hypothetical growth, consideration would happen around bringing additional roadways online to manage traffic.  Over the long term however, if this growth were to never occur the hypothetical roads would not be needed,” Veg says, adding, “these infrastructure schedules are intended to be forward-thinking well beyond the 20-year horizon of the OCP.”

As this is the first draft of the OCP that is intended to receive public attention and comments back to the City, the City is looking forward to hearing from the public on all of the proposed OCP, including future roads, in order to make changes prior to developing a final plan. 

Following the close of the public comment period on Sunday, December 10, 2023, the comments will be reviewed, the draft be amended as needed based on what we hear from the public, and changes presented to Council.  This would be well in advance of the OCP entering the formal approval process through Council. 

For more information and to comment on draft OCP including to comment on the future roads, the OCP website is https://www.cranbrook2042.ca/.

The image below is the draft Schedule 7 Future Roads Network that is in the OCP consultation package.