The Oxbow property is not impacted by this process.

Why did this happen?

Walton’s business has been adversely impacted by the effects of the prolonged recession in Alberta. This recession has resulted in weakened demand, reduced sales and revenues, and timeline extensions in many of Walton’s active development projects. Given these economic conditions, it has become difficult to obtain financing extensions required to complete projects. As such, Walton management believes the best course of action to protect these developments and its investors was to file them under CCAA. This process will allow time to restructure and determine the best course of action for the entities moving forward.

What does this mean?

We would like to reiterate that the Oxbow project was not part of this filing nor is it directly impacted by the Walton Group’s restructuring plan. This was not a bankruptcy filing – it is a planned and structured reorganization of certain Walton-managed companies. We are continuing business-as-usual during this process and it is our goal to come out a much stronger and healthier group of companies.

We will continue to provide additional and timely information as it become available. It is our priority to keep our neighbors, stakeholders, and community up to date and informed of our progress. A copy of the Initial Order and additional information regarding the CCAA proceedings are available on the Monitor’s website at www.ey.com/ca/wigi. We encourage everyone to visit the Monitor’s website and to read through the available materials, including the frequently asked questions which provide concise answers to many of the questions you may have. The Ernst & Young website will be your best source of information as it will provide all of the background and answers that are available at this time.

What are the next steps?

Oxbow is continuing forward as before. We prepared a draft Area Structure Plan and have provided it to the M.D. of Foothills for preliminary review and comment. Our next steps are to continue our discussions with the M.D. of Foothills to ensure that our planning and engineering reports satisfy their requirements and address any questions or comments they have on our planning materials.

We will continue to provide information as it becomes available to the community. As always, if there are questions on any of this please contact Brady Morrice here.

As stated in our last update, our next step is to provide the draft concept plan with supporting planning and engineering documents to M.D. of Foothills Administration for review and initial comment. The purpose of this next step is to ensure our planning and engineering studies are complete and satisfy M.D. of Foothills’ requirements. We are anticipating that Administration’s review will take several months, after which we will address and incorporate the feedback and comments we received. We will continue to provide the status of this review process through email and website updates.

We are also planning to have a community event (something fun!) on the Oxbow property this summer to ensure we keep connected with our neighbours. We hope to see you there.

For those of you that were not able to attend our most recent open house, or who would like to revisit the information, please click on this link to find all of the materials that were presented. Please do not hesitate to contact Brady Morrice here if you would like to discuss the content or have questions.

Take care and enjoy the lovely spring weather.

We’d like to extend our sincerest appreciation to our neighbours for the continued dialogue and input on our community plans. The Fall Open House provided valuable feedback that has helped to refine the initial high-level concept into a plan for the future community of Oxbow. To date, we have received much feedback that we have been able to incorporate into the overall plan, including:

• Limiting vehicular access and traffic on 88th Street;
• Incorporating a development setback and situate lowest density development along 88th Street and Dunbow Road;
• Preserving the escarpment and provide a number of publicly-accessible large open spaces throughout the community; and
• Providing public access to the Bow River.

We would like to invite you back once again to review the content of the draft ASP at our next open house. Details are:

Location: Davisburg Community Hall
Date: March 22, 2017
Time: 3 pm – 7:30 pm (Drop-in)

As always, if you can’t make this event, please don’t hesitate to contact Brady Morrice from Walton at 403.750.3345 or bmorrice@walton.com if you would like the opportunity to discuss our plans. We look forward to seeing you there.

In addition to the questions listed in our Frequently Asked Questions, we have had discussions on many other topics including:

• Desire for equestrian trails;
• Preferred community facilities;
• Observations on existing wildlife movements and patterns;
• Desire for improved internet and cellular service;
• Request for increased opportunities to age-in-place; and
• Need for public river access/boat launch.

Our plan is to continue preparing our Area Structure Plan and land use amendment applications over the winter. We intend to come back to the public with more detailed information and a completed concept plan early in the new year before we submit any applications to the MD of Foothills. We hope that everyone has a happy and safe upcoming holiday season!

We were also very excited to introduce our community name: Oxbow. We chose this name to pay tribute to the lands’ physical form and historical ranching and agricultural roots.

Within this link you will find all of the materials that were presented at our event. Please do not hesitate to contact Brady Morrice here if you would like to discuss the content or have questions.

We will be hosting an Open House on October 5th at the Davisburg Community Hall. Doors will be open from 9am – 1pm and 4pm – 8pm so please drop by at your convenience. Our entire team will be in attendance throughout the day to answer any questions you have and solicit your feedback. Please join us on the 5th and continue the conversation on the future of growth in the Davisburg Community. If you aren’t able to attend the event, please don’t hesitate to call or email when more convenient. Material displayed at the open house will be available on-line shortly after October 5th.

Most recently, we are actively working with the MD of Foothills staff to determine the requirements and technical studies needed to support the Area Structure Plan application process. These studies include a water and wastewater strategy, a stormwater master drainage plan, a biophysical impact assessment and a transportation impact analysis. We expect to complete these studies over the coming months with the goal of having an Area Structure Plan application ready for submission in late 2016.

Leading up to making an application, we will continue to update and converse with the community regularly. There is ample opportunity to provide input on future concept plans as the process evolves. Our next formal community event is being planned for the Fall where the community will be able to see and comment on our project vision, guiding principles and potential high-level concept plans. Stay tuned for details.

Prior to the next community gathering, we continue to encourage our neighbours to reach out and provide us with additional thoughts and ideas and ask any questions which will help shape this process and our community. Please contact us here.

Frequently Asked Questions Updated

Through the second half of 2015 we were fortunate to meet with many of our neighbours, community members and other stakeholders to discuss our lands. These conversations have allowed us to learn much more about the community and the many shared values that are important to existing residents. In our meetings we learned that some people have concerns about future growth in the region and the associated impacts. We also fielded many questions about our vision, plans and goals. We don’t have all the answers at this point as we are still very early in our process, but we have compiled a list of these Frequently Asked Questions and our responses to date that you can read here. We will continue to update and add new questions as they are asked to us and new information becomes available. If there are any questions that you have that are not on this list, please contact us at any time and we will be happy to discuss them with you.

Meet & Greet Drop-In on February 24, 2016

Walton will be hosting a community-wide Meet & Greet event on February 24, 2016 at the Davisburg Hall. This is a great opportunity to meet members of our team and learn more about us, provide us with your thoughts on the community and our lands, as well as ask any questions. We are very early in the process and as a result do not have material to share but are interested in gaining your input into what is important for us to consider. We look forward to seeing those we have already chatted with again and meeting new faces that we haven’t met yet. We will be at the Hall from 3pm-7pm so please stop by, introduce yourselves and join the discussion.

Alberta Culture and Tourism Update

Did you know there are recorded archaeological sites on the property? According to studies by Alberta Culture and Tourism and Bison Historical Services, there are 19. Of these sites, Alberta Culture and Tourism has identified 8 of them as being significant and warranting additional study. Of particular importance, there is a buffalo jump site and prehistoric campsite located on the eastern lower bench adjacent to the Bow River that has been designated as a Provincial Historic Resource.

Walton and Bison Historical Services have completed a Historical Resources Impact Assessment of the entire project area and we are now working closely with Alberta Culture and Tourism to ensure these areas are properly studied, documented, and preserved during the planning process. Walton recognizes the value and importance of Alberta’s historic resources and is committed to working with Alberta Culture and Tourism and the community to ensure these resources are respected.

As part of their ongoing ‘Flood Recovery Project’, Alberta Culture and Tourism and their consulting team will be conducting additional archaeological studies of the buffalo jump and campsites this October in an effort to better understand these valuable resources. On Thursday, October 1, 2015, media were invited to tour the site as part of efforts to create public awareness about the Government of Alberta flood recovery efforts around historic sites throughout the Province, with a particular focus on the buffalo jump located on the eastern side of the property.

For more information about Historical Resources in Alberta and how they are managed, please visit: http://culture.alberta.ca/