Rocky View County (RVC) council approved a development permit application July 12 for the construction of a specialized addition for Harmony Beef, a slaughterhouse and meat processing plant located in East Balzac.
According to RVC planner Jessica Anderson, the addition will house the conveyor and a transport trailer for the loading of clean, beef bones, which will be used as bone meal products.
“(The addition) in no way enlarges the process or expands the output of the operation, it merely relocates an activity that has always been a part of the meat harvesting process,” Anderson said. “There will be no impacts on the exterior of the plant or the neighbouring properties.”
Anderson added there are a number of improvements on the property, including a meat processing facility, cattle barns, a process water recycling facility and an office building.
“The existing facility has not been operational since 2007, following its initial approval in 2004, but does have an approved development permit for operations – the conditions of which remain in effect,” Anderson said. “Their vision is to complete significant renovations to the existing facility, which is currently underway, in order to make operation and process management improvements.”
The application was approved 5-1, with Councillor Jerry Arshinoff in opposition. Councillors Margaret Bahcheli, Liz Breakey and Deputy Reeve Solberg were not present at the vote.
Council unanimously approved a subdivision on Park Lane, west of the City of Calgary and east of Mountain View Road. The subdivision creates a two-acre parcel with a two-acre remainder and an upgraded mutual approach to service both lots.
A subdivision proposed west of the City of Airdrie was approved by council, creating a seven-acre parcel with a 12.94-acre remainder – with conditions removed requiring the applicant to upgrade the road used to access the parcel and to provide a site-specific stormwater management plan.
“If this property was in any other area, where we don’t have a watershed management plan, I don’t think we’d be asking for this on a seven-acre parcel,” said Area Councillor Lois Habberfield. “Common sense says that this water coming off that roof is going to have zilch effect.”
Her motion to remove the stormwater conditions was carried by a vote of 6-3, with opposition from Breakey, Bahcheli and Arshinoff.
Habberfield then moved to remove a requirement for road improvements to Range Road 22, which would support the increased traffic from the addition of a new lot. Her motion was carried 6-3 with opposition from Councillors Bruce Kendall, Bahcheli and Arshinoff.
“Just because we have roads that aren’t to standard yet doesn’t mean we now start giving legal approval to below-standard roads,” Bahcheli said. “Even if it is only one foot of gravel on the side, it’s a government road with a new legal standard.”
The amended application was approved 7-2, with Breakey and Arshinoff voting against Habberfield’s motion.
“If we’re going to have servicing standards, we should keep to them, or else we should make it clear when, if and how exemptions will be made,” Arshinoff said. “To say we have servicing standards and then not follow them, it does seem oxymoronic.”
