Canyon Creek Phase 2 could start in 2018
The next stage of a luxury creekside community in Medicine Hat could be underway in 2018.
Canyon Creek Phase 2 — a proposed 12-lot cul-de-sac on an outcropping of the Seven Persons Creek — was approved for subdivision at Wednesday’s meeting of the municipal planning commission.
The project follows phase one of the community of larger homes, built on higher ground on the bluffs near a service road from Highway 3. The new development, called Heron Crossing, would be accessed from South Boundary Road near the lowlevel bridge crossing that connects to two phases.
Planning commission members approved the new subdivision that was envisioned in a 2015 area plan and has been the subject of a variety of studies, including new floodway and flood fringe projections.
“We have very recent flood studies, which is important,” said city senior planning officer Jim Genge, adding slope, environmental, wildlife and historic resource reviews are included in application by Landmark Properties of Medicine Hat.
A 2016 floodway report done by Stantec Engineering shows four of the 12 lots with some encroachment to flood fringe, but nothing in the floodway — where development is barred.
All development is subject to a six-metre setback from the creek escarpment, said Genge, most of which would become municipal environmental reserve land.
The entire development measures about 10 acres.
Commission members asked how close the development would be to the city’s corporate limits. Planners replied that city limits are the extension of the upper portion of South Boundary Road, which is some distance to the south of the lower bench property in the creek coulee.