Golden recognized for innovative planning

The Town of Golden received a Community Excellence Award from the Union of BC Municipalities at their recent Vancouver conference. What follows are excerpts from the award document. [Read more]

A new look at AG Foods

Congratulations to Sydney-Anne and all the folks at AG Foods for the beautiful new exterior! [Read more]

Council to decide on AG Foods colour scheme

The District of Invermere is expected to decide during a council meeting tomorrow (Tuesday, June 9) on whether or not to allow a downtown grocery store to paint the outside of its building a vibrant new colour. [Read more]

Boats banned from Columbia Lake moorage

Boat users on Columbia Lake are being reminded that storing their vessels on the lake overnight is against local bylaws.

The policy comes from the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK), which recently issued a warning that it will be stepping up its enforcement of the bylaw this summer. [Read more]

Grizzly Ridge shot down again

We attended the RDEK meeting in Cranbrook this morning to find out more about the fate of the Grizzly Ridge project.

Meredith Hamstead, representing a group of citizens from the Invermere area, made a presentation in support of the group’s request that the RDEK reconfirm its support for the 300 acre (120 ha) minimum parcel size for the west side of Lake Windermere as contained in the Lake Windermere OCP and to also support the District of Invermere preference to not see further development and subdivision on the Grizzly Ridge Properties until the public processes associated with regional governance and long term land use planning have been concluded. [Read more]

District of Invermere withdraws support for Grizzly Ridge expansion

The District of Invermere has withdrawn its support for the proposed amalgamation of the Grizzly Ridge Properties into the boundary of the District. This expansion of the District’s boundaries has been negotiated for the past four years with the owner of these properties, Mark Himmelspach, and his representatives. [Read more]

Council cautious on Grizzly Ridge plan

Press release –

District of Invermere Boundary Expansion & Grizzly Ridge Properties Ltd.

On late Friday afternoon the decision was made to cancel the March 9th open house regarding boundary expansion of the District of Invermere. On the Tuesday March 10th council agenda, there will be a resolution to limit discussions and negotiations with Grizzly Ridge Properties Ltd. regarding the proposed annexation of their property, for an eight week period. If approved on Tuesday night, council will then consider in early May whether to continue with the previsouly outlined process, create a new process, or stop boundary expansion discussions altogether. [Read more]

Proposed Grizzly Ridge boundary expansion

The District of Invermere held an open house this Tuesday, February 3 to explain the Grizzly Ridge boundary expansion proposal. It is important to note that this is a general statement of intent and not a final plan. The opportunity for expansion is due to a large piece of property, owned by one company that is going through a development process. Grizzly Ridge, with the existing zoning, could break the property into 12 large lots of 60 hectares or just under 150 acres. These lots could then be sold off to 12 different owners and therefore the district feels that they may have a better chance of dealing with one owner now rather than 12 different ones later. [Read more]