Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter
Northern Sunrise County held a public hearing at its regular council meeting Oct. 10 to discuss proposed amendments to the Sunrise Gateway Business Park Area Structure Plan.
Approximately 45 people attended the hearing to voice their concerns with the proposed changes that could affect agricultural usage in the area.
“Council appreciated the feedback that was received,” says Reeve Corinna Williams, adding there were some concerns addressed by the attendees that council will be addressing.
“(They were concerned) for a couple of reasons: adding red tape to the current process for agricultural livestock producers and additional lands for the future expansion of the Sunrise Gateway Business Park (SGBP) are not needed, especially the proposed boundaries that the County had looked at originally.”
Council had given its first reading to Bylaw B435/23 earlier this fall to be able to trigger a public hearing for ratepayers to voice their opinions on the proposed amendments. Amendments were being proposed after council directed administration to amend the bylaw to develop regulations for keeping livestock numbers low in the business park.
“Council recognizes that should large livestock producers occupy the lands closest to the SGBP there is the potential for varying uses of land,” explains Williams. “They were trying to achieve a balance between industrial and commercial uses and intensive farming operations.”
There were some social media comments saying they felt the council was trying to eliminate hobby farms, which Williams vehemently addresses is not accurate. She says the council members are great supporters of agricultural activities and they are simply trying to ensure there is transparency in activities in the county.
“The intent behind this was for council to be able to be informed of the livestock operations that could affect the lands within the SGBP,” she explains, adding that current landowners with animals would not be affected by proposed amendments. She adds that the council wanted to ensure affected landowners could have their voices heard.
“Under the Municipal Government Act, we are required to provide notice to certain landowners, those that could be affected by the proposed bylaw as well as adjacent landowners. We are not required to notify residents who are not affected by the proposed bylaw; however, we do advertise all public hearings on the County website, and in the South Peace News, which is available online and in the Town of Peace River.”
Proposed amendments would require landowners to apply for a development permit for any parcel within the business park that had more than one animal for every four acres.
After hearing the concerns of the public, council has referred the bylaw back to administration to discuss further.
“Council will be scheduling a Governance and Priorities Committee (GPC) meeting where they can discuss the matter in depth to decide how they would like to move forward based on the feedback provided by residents,” says Williams.
“GPC meetings are open to the public to attend, and no decisions are made at these meetings. Information would need to be brought to a future council meeting for review and approval by council,” she concludes.