It's an issue most municipalities have some awareness of – dealing with boundary expansion and working on the premise that more is better.
The topic has been on the table for a number of years and the board of the Regional District of Central Kootenay was contemplating it at the meeting of January 17.
Castlegar mayor Lawrence Chernoff is an enthusiastic supporter of the idea of gaining close to 90 acres in the regional district's rural area now known as "J."
"It's been on the books for a while and we're just trying to process it," related Chernoff the following afternoon.
"What happened at a the regional district was that they want a little more input because that boundary extension would be in Area J." The land is south of the West kootenay Regional Airport, across from the City's airport lands near the weigh scales.
A fair bit has been done to advance this amalgamation and it's a parcel any city, town or village would likely be happy to acquire.
"What we told them is that there's a process already in place, legislation and everything also to do that," the mayor continued. "But the board voted to have a special review committee to look at this issue."
It would please the local government greatly to get this deal done.
"Absolutely," said the mayor, it's great positional and we have a letter of first refusal from the Ministry of Highways and Transportation. We're looking forward to the boundary expansion, that's for sure. It's really a prime location… it's flat land and it definitely meets the needs of what we're looking for for the city, because sewer and water are over at the airport lands so it makes for an ideal situation for development."