Get ready for more condos and country clubs on Hwy. 1 into Banff National Park..That’s because Alberta’s highest court has overturned a bid from the Town of Canmore to stop a pair of developments that would have used up more than 80% of the resort’s remaining developable land and potentially double the town’s population..In a ruling released on Tuesday, the Alberta Court of Appeal said the town had no legal standing to overturn a May 2022 Land and Property Rights Tribunal ruling allowing a pair of developments at the Three Sisters Village and Smith Creek regions to proceed..The controversy had divided town residents on the merits of further development in the high mountain village since at least 2015. The town formally rejected the proposals in 2021 but were later appealed to the LPRT, which subsequently reapproved them under an agreement with the former Natural Resources Conservation Board in 1991..At the heart of the dispute were the number of residential units permitted under the town’s development bylaws and the provision of wildlife corridors..While it acknowledged the deeper political decisions, the court ruled the town did not assert sufficient legal authority to overturn the prior decisions of higher boards. .“The Town has not established a basis upon which we can interfere with the tribunal’s decisions,” the decision stated. “The appeals are dismissed.”.Canmore has an estimated population of about 17,000 as of 2023 making it Alberta’s ninth-largest community. It’s also Alberta’s fastest growing in relative terms, — and fourth nationally, ahead of Kelowna — at more than 14% over the past four years compared to 5.8% for neighbouring Banff..It also has the highest cost of living in Alberta outside the mountain parks. That has prompted complaints from residents the town is just growing too fast for local infrastructure to keep up..Locals are also complaining of ‘toxic tourists’ clogging up local streets and creating parking problems at local hotspots, including Kananaskis..In its 1998 development plan, Canmore said it could only “sustainably” maintain about 6% annual growth..If both developments proceed as planned it would potentially double the population of the town, in excess of 35,000, which would put it on par with Okotoks and Chestermere.
