After two years, the Foothills MD and the Town of Okotoks have come to a long argued over agreement on annexation.

The Town and MD have met 11 times over the past 14 months in mediated sessions to finally arrive at a deal in principle.

MD Mayor Larry Spilak says there wasn't one big change that pushed the deal forward.

"Little bits and pieces came together gradually, the land owners certainly do have much to say as to whether they are annexed or not, so we tried very hard to support them whether they wanted to be annexed or they did not," he says. "Although we were successful in most cases to support the landlords, in some cases we weren't able top give them exactly what they wanted but that's the part of negotiation that comes into play."

The agreement, if approved by the Municipal Government Board, will see the town grow to the north, east and west and includes land south of Highway 7, the site of the contentious Windwalk development.

"That was one of the areas that was very difficult to come to an agreement on," Spilak says. "Historically it's always been agreed to that Okotoks would grow north and grow east, and some west and the MD of Foothills would keep the land south of Highway 7, but of course this is where one of the biggest changes came to play."

The agreement went to Foothills MD council for its approval Wednesday morning while Okotoks town council gave its approval to the "in principle" agreement last Monday.

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