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The new rules will “require communities to come together,” said Larivee, and will go to independent arbitration if no agreement is reached. “We need to recognize our communities are interconnected.”

But Rocky View County, which abandoned the Calgary Regional Partnership seven years ago over concerns the voting structure was skewed in favour of denser urban areas, says it’s wary of being forced into a new arrangement, now called a growth management board.

“Our position was and still is when they were trying to gather information on these boards we felt that collaboration and co-operation were the way to go rather than mandating a group together,” said Greg Boehlke, reeve for Rocky View County.

“The main driver to Rocky View, Foothills and Wheatland leaving Calgary Regional Partnership was the rules changed one month before the ratification of the CRP that gave Calgary the double majority vote,” said Boehlke.

Amendments to the Municipal Government Act introduced Tuesday also addressed how to pay for new suburban neighbourhoods.

“Growth is not paying for growth,” Larivee said. “We’re just making sure the people who are benefiting are the people who are paying.”

Cities will now be able to charge developers for libraries, police stations, fire halls and community recreation centres if at least 30 per cent of the benefit from those new facilities goes directly to the new areas. The province is still writing regulations to ensure the cost to new homeowners is proportionate to the benefit.