Municipal board to reconvene

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This article was published 17/05/2017 (2527 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a rare move, the Manitoba Municipal Board will reconvene its public hearing on the City of Steinbach’s proposed friendly land annexation from the RM of Hanover, to allow submissions on the reduced annexation area recommended by the board earlier this year.

This week, the board issued a notice acknowledging “parties did not have the opportunity to give evidence and make submissions about the reduced annexation area” if the whole annexation does not ultimately proceed. The public hearing will therefore reconvene on June 7 at 6:30 p.m. at the Steinbach Curling Club.

In a Jan. 6 recommendation, the board said the city should accept a 30-year supply of land, rather than the desired 50-year supply. As a result, all land in proposed annexation north of Highway 52 was excluded from the board’s recommendation to minister of municipal relations Eileen Clarke.

“We’ll go through the process and we’ll make our case,” said Steinbach mayor Chris Goertzen. “We obviously want to work together with our neighbours and we thought we had done that with the agreement that was in place.”

Recalling his disappointment with the board’s recommendation, Goertzen said he looks forward to once again outlining the city’s case for facilitating continued growth in the region.

“Hopefully logic will prevail,” he said, adding the best case scenario remains receiving provincial approval for the full land request.

Goertzen confirmed the city will be making a formal presentation to the board and said city officials spoke to a number of individuals within and outside of the provincial government in the months since the Jan. 6 recommendation was issued.