Strathcona County rules leave pot-plant plans up in the air
The head of a company hoping to build Strathcona County’s first legal marijuana operation says new zoning rules still require lots of work before such developments are approved.
Councillors voted this week to allow cannabis production facilities in large-parcel agriculture areas and locations intended for medium industrial buildings such as warehouses, changing from an earlier policy requiring them to be built only on property classified for intensive horticulture.
Aaron Barr, chief executive of Canadian Rockies Agricultural Inc., said Wednesday this outcome is better than the original proposal to keep such facilities off all agricultural land, but the decision about whether his company can go ahead is still up to a county development officer.
“(Proponents) must jump through numerous hoops to get an accepted development permit,” Barr wrote in an email.
“So, although this is a huge win for residences and businesses in the county, there is still a lot of work to do going forward, but we’re excited about the opportunity for at least a chance in this emerging industry.”
His company ran into opposition from local residents last July over an application to put up nine buildings in the first phase of a project that included greenhouses, processing and underground storage vaults on a former elk and ostrich ranch about 12 kilometres southeast of Josephburg.
The firm eventually intended to expand the greenhouses, raise six hectares of industrial hemp, and add storage silos and a hemp research building, operating what it describes as a sustainable farm producing craft, hydroponically grown cannabis.
People living nearby were concerned about such issues as protection from intruders who might be lured to the neighbourhood to try to break into the facility, traffic and losing prime agricultural soil.
While the application was approved, the decision was challenged by residents and eventually overturned by the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board, said Stacy Fedechko, the county’s director of planning and development.
Canadian Rockies has submitted a scaled-down proposal for the site and staff should rule on it by the end of January, she said.
The zoning amendments mean there’s less space in Strathcona County where companies can set up cannabis operations, she said.
“They have taken it out of the smaller agricultural areas and focused it on larger properties that are more appropriate for that kind of scale and use.”
Canadian Rockies is the only company now seeking to build a marijuana facility in the county after development officers rejected an application from a second firm a few months ago, Fedechko said.
But the revised rules mean the county can be part of this growing industry, she said. Companies receiving development approval still need production licences from Health Canada.
“It leaves the option open for businesses to apply … We’re open for business.”