Procedural issues cause county council to rescind, perform new readings for road closure bylaw

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Sunny South News

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

Lethbridge County Council has rescinded and performed reading for a road closure, sale and consolidation bylaw.

During their regular Oct 17 meeting, county council revisited Bylaw 19-010 — Hutterian Brethren Church of Turin Road Closure, Sale and Consolidation bylaw.

Back in Spring 2019, council had reviewed a request from the Hutterian Brethren Church of Turin to close, purchase and consolidate portions of a road on NE- 19-12-19-4. Municipal Services foresaw no future use of the undeveloped Right of Way, and the Hutterian Brethren Church of Turin has agreed to consolidate this Right of Way into their parcel. They had requested the closure because they wish to expand their gravel operations through the Right of Way.

Although the county had previously approved the bylaw, an issue with the reading during the procedure with the public hearings meant that they had to revisit it.

“At the public hearing for this bylaw, second and third readings were mistakenly given approval at the wrong time during the closure procedure. We must now rescind the prior second and third readings of this bylaw before we can legitimately complete second and third readings at today’s meeting,” said Scott Tollestrup, project technologist for the county.

Coun. Steve Campbell asked if they have now received approval from the Minister of Transportation, and if that was why it was the “proper time to do second and third reading”, which Tollestrup said was correct.

“At the public hearing, it was thought that perhaps we could slide in second and third reading at the same time and save an appearance at another county council meeting, but that turned out to be wrong, so we’re back here today to fix the mistake basically,” said Tollestrup.

Council passed motions to rescind second and third reading of Bylaw 19-010, and re-perform second and third reading of the bylaw.