Rural residents near Okotoks fighting proposed car dealership site

Rural residents who own acreages just north of Okotoks, Alta., say they will fight plans to build a new car dealership next to their quiet country homes.

High River Toyota is leaving that town with plans to move to a new site north of Okotoks, building a large glass-fronted dealership on a piece of land at 322 Avenue and Highway 2A, which is surrounded by rural properties.

More than 30 residents in the area have signed a petition to oppose the development, which they say will ruin their quality of life and decrease property values.

"We were never notified by the county or the developers, it was our neighbours that told us," said Nicole Brockhoff, who lives on a rural property just metres away from the proposed dealership.

"They're planning to move High River Toyota right into our front yard," said Brockhoff. "And they're planning to change the service road, so not only will we have a dealership but we'll also have a road rerouted right by our fence line," she said.

A service road that runs alongside Highway 2A would be realigned as part of the development, along with the construction of a storm pond and a gravel parking lot at the neighbouring Okotoks Farmers Market site.

"We live in the country, we love the peace and quiet of the country, we don't want the noise pollution, increased traffic, lights — it affects the whole landscape," said Brockhoff.

As part of the development application, the area would have to be rezoned by Foothills County from country-residential to commercial.

Residents like Brockhoff are concerned about the property tax implications involved in rezoning and the risk of opening up the area to other kinds of commercial development.

"How is this going to impact our land values, what is our land going to be worth? People have invested a lot of time and money into making their acreages beautiful and now all that work — is it going to be for nothing?" said Brockhoff.

High River Toyota and B&A Planning Group say they have worked closely with the community, and while some are unhappy with the plans, others are happy to see a new business set up near town.

"There are people opposed because they're adjacent to the site, but we've also talked to people who are either undecided or supportive, and we encourage people to engage with us throughout the project," said Jack Moddle with B&A Planning Group, which is based in Calgary.

"There are neighbouring businesses that have been developing along this corridor over the last 10 years or so," said Moddle.

Farther down the road are two other car dealerships, a school, a sports therapy business and the Okotoks Farmers Market. Up the road to the north are Cycle Works Foothills and the Big Sky BBQ Pit. 

"We're trying hard to mitigate as many of the impacts as we can. We held coffee chats where we sat down with people from the local area and heard about their concerns and we made quite a few changes to the plan based on that feedback," said Moddle.

Moddle says a recent open house heard from around 50 attendees and the company has worked closely with Foothills County to prepare a formal submission. 

An application was submitted to the municipal district in October.

Foothills County says the next step in the process is a first hearing, planned for late January.