Fence plan is back on table for Three Sisters
Canmore developer says alternatives wouldn’t work for wildlife corridor
CANMORE Planners with Three Sisters Mountain Village in Canmore are once again suggesting fences be built around their proposed developments, despite ongoing questions about how they could affect wildlife movement through the Bow Valley.
The proposals for Smith Creek and the Resort Centre, located on the former golf course lands, were discussed during a recent online forum related to wildlife mitigation.
It confirmed that planners are still looking to build a fence around two proposed developments in Three Sisters, which could provide housing for another 10,000 residents once it’s fully built out.
“We investigated several options because we didn’t want to go back to (a fence),” said Jessica Karpat, planner with Quantum Place Developments, which is working on the plans for the area.
“We were looking at doing a hard edge with buildings.”
They received feedback from wildlife experts suggesting that wouldn’t work to keep wildlife out of the developed area or people from entering the wildlife corridors — both of which have been concerns in the past.
However, the proposal to fence the developments is raising a lot of questions. A scientist who studies wildlife movements in the Bow Valley said it would only work under specific conditions.
“It depends where it is and what they are doing on either side of the fence,” said Adam Ford, an ecology professor at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus. “There’s a whole lot of what-ifs.”
Ford said a fence has the potential to block wildlife movements through the Bow Valley, one of the few remaining corridors for animals such as grizzly bears to go back and forth between Kananaskis and Banff National Park.
Lights and noise could also deter animals from moving through the area, he said.
Similar concerns are being raised by conservation groups, including the Canmore-based Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.
“The real gist of the issue is we’re making the last major decision about wildlife movement in the Bow Valley,” said Alberta program director Stephen Legault, who noted that’s a decision to be made by the province.
One of the questions, he said, is about how wide and permeable the corridor would be.
“What I understand is that they’ve proposed 300 to 350 metres,” said Legault, noting research suggests wildlife corridors need to be at least 450 metres wide for wolves, grizzly bears and other species to move freely around human development.
The developers said concerns could be offset by building another wildlife underpass, a proposal that’s also raising questions.
“There are conditions where their plan could work, but there’s also a lot of scenarios where it wouldn’t,” said Ford.
Quantum Place Developments has been meeting with a multistakeholder group on the Smith Creek development and is almost ready to submit its plans to the Town of Canmore.
“There’s a draft (area structure plan) still being refined and we’re ready to go out to the public prior to submission,” said Karpat, noting they’ve also been looking at the plans for the Resort Centre on the former golf course site through the same process.
Both proposals, which also look at concerns related to old underground coal mines in the area, will be discussed further during an open house being held by the developer at 1-4 p.m. and 6-9 p.m. on Tuesday at the Coast Canmore Hotel on Bow Valley Trail.
There’s also a community meeting on wildlife connectivity in Three Sisters being hosted by the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative on Thursday at 7 p.m.
It’s taking place at the Canmore Seniors Centre.