The Town of Okotoks & The M.D. of Foothills have finally reached an agreement on the Town's future when it comes to expansion.

A memorandum of understanding was carried by council on Monday allowing the Town to expand its boundaries.

Okotoks Mayor Bill Robertson

Okotoks Mayor Bill Robertson says the Town is glad the annexation negotiations are finally done as it was over two years in the making.  

"We're very pleased that the annexation was concluded we're fully supportive of the Town growing and bringing those significant amounts of land into our town for future growth it's just a great achievement for the Town," he says.

Robertson says the negotiations had the Town, M.D. and the landowners involved in talks.

"The landowners are supportive, we have letters of support for virtually all of the land coming in, The M.D. of Foothills has agreed to release those and the Town of Okotoks is eager to bring them under our jurisdiction."

The next step for the Town is growth as now almost 2,000 acres of land has been annexed to them and now the future growth developments can start.

The agreement, if a 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. 

When asked about the Town's future water supply with the proposed potable water pipeline from Calgary to Okotoks, Robertson says they can still go ahead with building if the pipeline isn't quite ready to go.

"If we got approvals for the pipeline it's likely to take 3-4 years before a drop of water would flow down it but in the mean time with interim water license transfers and we could still continue growth in this Town based on that."

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