Rocky View County (RVC) could have a new hamlet in the near future.
At a RVC Governance Committee meeting on April 16, committee members heard from County administration about the potential to redesignate the community of Harmony as a hamlet. According to the County, the community west of Springbank currently has around 1,500 residents, making it one of the largest communities governed by the County.
RVC Executive Director of Operations, Byron Riemann, said that administration believed it was time for the County to classify Harmony as a hamlet, primarily because of its population growth, but also because the County is eligible to receive grant funding for hamlets.
“We feel that it’s time for Harmony to become a hamlet,” he said to the committee. “Adding another hamlet that helps with grant opportunities is a great idea [for the County.”
According to the report presented to the committee, the Province maintains grants for municipalities to use towards communities within their jurisdictions that can provide up to 30 per cent coverage for water and wastewater infrastructure upgrades.
The County is predicting that the population of Harmony could potentially grow to as much as 10,000 in the coming decade, which would make it by far the largest community in the County that isn’t designated as a town or city.
Langdon currently holds the title of most populous hamlet in RVC, with a population of about 5,500.
Administration officials said to the committee that there would be no change to property taxes if Harmony were to be redesignated. The County also admitted that Harmony has been considered a hamlet in statutory documents since the 2013 County Plan.
Keagan Andrew, a County intergovernmental advisor who presented the hamlet idea to committee members, also said that, “the [County’s] intention has always been for Harmony to be a hamlet.”
The committee members did not tip their hand on what they thought of a Harmony hamlet idea; no official vote on whether to redesignate Harmony was held, the entire purpose of the presentation was to inform the committee of the idea.
