The Reeve of the M.D of Foothills says he was impressed by the number of people who showed an interest in a June meeting about annexation south of Calgary.

Larry Spilak says the open house drew a good crowd of residents.

"It was incredible. We had somewhere around 300 people attend," he says. "The one in September is going to have the maps. That's when the City of Calgary is prepared to show what they would like to see included in the land use and from there the negotiation will take place."

He says it's hard to get a read on how people feel about it.

"If you're in Heritage Pointe some of the people want to be part of the city and some of the people want to not be in the city and they say 'we moved out of the city' but others want to take advantage of the lower utility rates that Calgary has to offer," Spilak says. "Then if you go to the country, to country residential, some of them again says that they moved out there for the peace and quiet and the others look at it and say 'well my land values will increase substantially if it's included in an annexation or a land use' so you really couldn't get a feel for it."

He says a lot of acreage owners are getting older and don't want the hassles that going with owning that much property while younger people simply can't afford to get into the market.

He says it was discussed five years ago it would have leaned very heavily toward "stay out of my backyard" and in another five years it'll lean even more to the point where people says they can get more for their land and they're ready to move anyway.

There's no date for the next open house in September but he says the M.D. will inform affected residents before it happens.

Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email us at news@okotoksonline.com