The Town of High River has started work on a new Town Plan.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says it will review pretty much anything and everything to do with the town now and into the future.

"Whether it be housing needs or future development locations and priorities, transportation needs. Ec-dev (economic development) is a part of it, you know we're going to be looking at what kind of business, industry focus areas, if there are any, what does that look like," he says. "Of course environmental concerns is another one at the top of the list with these plans now, where we fit in with the environment and how we conduct ourselves in that manner."

A Task Force is being set up, including council members and residents and feedback will be gathered throughout the process.

"What the biggest question is going to be for this task force is going to be 'what is growth and what does it look like,' that's a big big word and every community discusses it and struggles with it but my hope is through this process and with this task force and council involved and the public being involved we can get some more clarity as to what our residents and businesses really look at when we talk about growth with the town." Snodgrass said.

He says they need to decide whether to go all out like a lot of communities in Alberta and in Canada have done, or do they want to remain a small quiet little town.

"Growth will always happen, it's how it's managed and how aggressive you get, a lot of communities, you can sell your soul, the souls of your community real quick by simply waving the flag as growth being the banner of success," he says.

A Draft Town Plan is anticipated to be completed for initial review by Council by December 2022, although the mayor says he doesn't want to put an arbitrary deadline on something this big and this important.