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What Does Your Community Need?

The “why” behind community growth and change is different for everyone. From infrastructure and housing to climate change and community character, community growth and change is motivated by a range of circumstances. Our development planning, transportation planning, community planning, and public engagement services address your concerns while delivering results that are practical and measurable.

With an additional 30+ in-house services, our work is characterized by smooth communication and the ability to take on multi-disciplinary projects of any size.

Planning Expertise That Supports Your Community

Whatever your community’s “why,” our expertise in policy planning, development approvals, engagement, and planning advice is here to support your growth and change.

Policy Plans

Policy Plans

We use research and our extensive experience with land use and development approvals to write effective and implementable plans and to create land use and zoning bylaws that are consistent with high-level policy.

Our services include:

  • Municipal Development Plans
  • Official Community Plans
  • Area Structure Plans
  • Neighbourhood Plans
  • Area Redevelopment Plans
  • Land use bylaws / zoning
  • Complete Community studies
  • Housing Needs Assessments
Development Approval

Development Approvals

We’re fluent with provincial legislation and local government policy and can administer development approval processes on behalf of property owners, builders, and developers. Our planners have extensive experience working with all the technical disciplines required to make development projects a reality.

Our services include:

  • Subdivision
  • Rezoning
  • Development permits
  • Road closures
  • Design briefs
  • Liaising with municipal staff
Engagement

Engagement

Great communication leads to exceptional planning. From online engagement tools to face-to-face consultation, we use diverse strategies to capture interest holder voices.

Our services include:

  • Online and in-person public consultation
  • Workshops
  • Interested party consultation
  • Public hearing representation
Banff Ave Sketch Sun

Planning Advice

Our team members have career backgrounds in local government and private land development. This combination helps us remain responsive to diverse priorities. We specialize in developing strategic plans that identify funding opportunities and in providing decision-making frameworks that support new initiatives.

Our services include:

  • Feasibility studies
  • Zoning review
  • Appeal board applications
  • Land development

Visit our planning page to explore our full range of planning services, including transportation planning, development planning, public engagement, and community planning.

McElhanney has recognized experts leading planning teams across AB and BC:

Jill Hofer_Cropped

Jill Hofer, BA, RUP, MCIP, RPP – Senior Planner

T: 403-812-0871 | E: jhofer@mcelhanney.com

Brad Elenko

Brad Elenko, MCIP, RPP – Division Manager, Senior Planner

T: 250-485-7387 | E: belenko@mcelhanney.com

Colton-Kirsop.jpg

Colton Kirsop, MUP, RPP, MCIP – Division Manager, Senior Planner

T: 236-317-9978 | E: ckirsop@mcelhanney.com

Kevin Brooks_Cropped

Kevin Brooks, BSc, M.Plan., MCIP, RPP – Division Manager, Senior Planner

T: 250-202-9037 | E: kbrooks@mcelhanney.com

The Proof is in the Projects

Explore how clients like you met their community’s needs with McElhanney:

Town of Ponoka Municipal Development Plan

Town of Ponoka Portfolio 1

To accommodate community growth, the Town of Ponoka engaged McElhanney to lead a review of their Municipal Development Plan in mid-2022.

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City of Kamloops

North Shore Neighbourhood Plan sidewalk-zones-North-Shore

McElhanney’s province-wide presence and knowledge of local requirements blended expertise and familiarity to support the success of this Neighbourhood Plan.

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Town of Olds Housing Needs Assessment

Town of Olds Housing Needs Assessment

The Town of Olds engaged McElhanney to complete a Housing Needs Assessment to examine pressing housing needs within the municipality.

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Haisla First Nation Land Use Planning

Haisla Land Use Planning

McElhanney’s GIS system, Vertisee, was used to identify potential land use conflicts and synergies for a land use plan as part of the implementation of the First Nations Land Management Act for Haisla First Nation.

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Town of Smithers Official Community Plan

The Town of Smithers OCP included their Main Street shopping district

Smithers maintained a strong mountain town identity and sense of place and wanted future growth to be managed by an Official Community Plan that respected community values.

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Join our team

McElhanney values hiring and keeping great people, and that includes the planning team. Join our expanding network of planning specialists committed to building a better tomorrow. Interested? Apply today