Results are in from the first round of consultations the Town of Okotoks conducted on the Environmental Master Plan.

The consults took place in November where residents discussed what they'd like to see for future development and how to retrofit existing communities in regards to environmental sustainability.

Topics covered at the consults were urban design and transportation, water management, energy emissions and air quality, and waste systems.

Dawn Smith, sustainability coordinator for the Town of Okotoks, says residents were strongly supportive of the concept of ecosystems, bio diversity, and food.

"People really wanted to see more green space, and when I say green space I mean naturalized space so not necessarily sports fields, weaved throughout our community. So connecting kind of through green fingers down to the river valley, so places for recreation and to move through acts of transportation through these corridors."

Another branch off of bio diversity and food that generated a lot of interest was residents stating they want to see more local food production through community green spaces in each neighbourhood.

Smith says they're now setting up the basic framework before they head back out into the community in February and March to test ideas out.

"Just testing ideas off of people of what they'd be comfortable with, for example, a lot of residents expressed they'd like to see more alternative energy, so what does that mean to our citizens? Are they in support of wind farms? Or was that solar PV? Going as far out as there's new types of nuclear, I don't know if that would be popular, but trying to test these ideas off of our residents, what they actually mean by those words."

Another topic that generated a lot of interest through a Facebook post by the Town was the concept of tiny homes, where the general feedback was they should look at a new way to design neighbourhoods and offer more diversity to home buyers for aging residents and millenials.

Full results of the Environmental Master Plan can be found by clicking here.

Questions, comments, or story ideas? Email us at news@okotoksonline.com