Planning District Struggles With Officer Vacancy

This month the Municipality of North Cypress-Langford received several delegations to discuss various topics around land use. As well, Council passed their interim budget, which allows them to continue operations uninterrupted until the budget passes later in the spring, and addressed board and committee appointments.

TTES Consulting, which is working with the Enns Brothers dealership near Neepawa, is looking to find ways to deal with water control on the property. Their proposed drainage would tie into municipal service road ditching and thus requires consultation with and permission from Council to proceed. They have already applied for licensing from water control and do not believe that this project will cause any downstream problems.

Rodney White of the Whitemud Watershed Conservation District addressed Council on a conservation corridor restoration project. The land in that area of the municipality is particularly sandy due to glacial deposits, and tree planting along the corridor as well as a few rows of cover crop helps to deal with blowing sand. They are asking Council to cover the cost of the trees, for which there are potential funding sources and grants that are accessible to the municipality.

A large portion of the meeting was then dedicated to a public hearing regarding a new subdivision that would require a bylaw revision for rezoning. There were significant questions from adjacent landowners regarding the necessity of the reclassification, not to mention whether it violates other municipal regulations, as well as the procedure for circulation of notifications prior to the hearing. As the Cypress Planning District is currently without a development officer, Council took note of the objections and questions but were not comfortable proceeding without an officer in place or without consulting with the neighbouring district out of Brandon. While the landowner was present to explain why the request was structured the way it was, there were still too many unanswered questions to proceed at this time.

Other business included replacement of the flags at the rec centre, funding for the future daycare, the 2025 tax sale dates, municipal emergency measures coordination, and the latest from the health action committee.