Rocky View County (RVC) held public hearings Sept. 25 to consider five land redesignation applications – only three received council’s approval at the regular meeting.
A proposed industrial storage district – which would have allowed for an RV storage business within the Balzac West Area Structure Plan (ASP) – was deemed non-compliant by administration, according to planner Paul Simon.
“The proposal to allow for industrial storage as a principal use on the subject lands is incompatible with the ultimate goal of developing Balzac West as a residential area,” he said.
Simon added while some adjacent developments are allowed some type of outside storage, most were approved before the Balzac West ASP was adopted in 2007.
Area Coun. Daniel Henn moved to refuse the application, and said the application fell in a grey area. Access to the site off Highway 566 is already poor, according to Henn, and an RV storage facility would be visually unappealing from Highway 1. Reeve Greg Boehlke supported the motion.
“The ASP and the concept plan state that storage uses should be ancillary to the fundamental main business, and this is not,” he said. “I don’t think that it fits the planning.”
Henn’s motion was carried 6-2. Coun. Kim McKylor – who, along with Coun. Crystal Kissell, opposed the refusal – said the application seemed to fit with uses already in the area.
“There’s a pipeline storage facility that is in direct view just to the west of this,” she said. “The area, as we saw by the visual, is quite storage related.”
An application to redesignate land at the southwest junction of Highway 560 and Range Road 282, in the City of Calgary Future Industrial Growth Area, was delayed after council failed to receive a unanimous vote to proceed with third reading of the bylaw.
According to planner Sean MacLean, the application to redesignate the land as Agricultural Holdings District was deemed non-compliant, as it did not meet the definition of a first parcel out or a new/distinct agricultural operation.
Area Coun. Al Schule moved to approve the application, adding it appeared to fit with surrounding land uses.
“Many times, I hear people come in here and give me the idea that there’s going to be new and distinct agricultural operations, and I sometimes question if that does happen or doesn’t happen,” he said. “From listening to the applicant, it almost sounds like there is going to be a distinct operation, because they’re talking about one side haying and the other side could be for horses.”
Two motions by Schule – to set aside County Plan and RVC/City of Calgary Intermunicipal Development Plan policies related to the application – were carried despite opposition from Couns. Samanntha Wright, Kevin Hanson and Kissell.
Hanson said his opposition stemmed from feedback received from the Calgary Metropolitan Regional Board (CMRB) that it did not want subdivision into smaller parcels in the growth corridor. Hanson expressed a desire to work collaboratively with CMRB and said, “the less we can antagonize them the better.”
First and second readings of the bylaw were also opposed by Hanson, Wright and Kissell. The application will be presented for third reading at council’s next meeting, Oct. 16.
Three applications were approved by council. The first, according to planner Xin Deng, facilitates a future boundary adjustment with a parcel to the north, creating a 3.36-acre parcel and a 3.03-acre remainder on land in Bearspaw. According to Deng, the application would not create any new parcels. Council gave three unanimous readings to the redesignation bylaw.
Planner Stefan Kunz said the second application – on land just north of Springbank Road – would facilitate the future creation of a 1.98-acre parcel with a 16.95-acre remainder. That application was approved unanimously by council.
The third application, according to Jamie Kirychuk, paves the way for a range of new and distinct agricultural uses – including horse boarding, beekeeping and sheep farming – on land just south of Highway 567 on the west side of Bearspaw Road. The subdivision, which creates three 40-acre parcels and a 40-acre remainder, was approved unanimously.
