Lethbridge County considering rezoning bylaw for Green Prairie rebuild after fire

Green Prairie International is looking to Lethbridge County for a rezoning bylaw to allow them to to rebuild and grow following a fire at the facility east of the city earlier this summer.

During their regular Aug. 5 meeting, Lethbridge County council discussed the rezoning application to enable the business to replace buildings and expand.

Bylaw 21-016 would re-designate a parcel within land known as NW 1-9-21-W4 from Lethbridge Urban Fringe to Rural General Industrial.

According to administration, the applicant, Green Prairie International Inc.’s, intent is to bring the subject parcel into compliance with the landuse bylaw, so they can replace origitures that were lost to a fire and to also expand their current operations in the future.

In late June, emergency crews had responded to a fire in a warehouse at the Green Prairie facility east of Lethbridge off of Highway 3. No injuries were reported to firefighters or civilians on the scene.

County Senior Planner Hilary Janzen said the property had never been rezoned from Lethbridge Urban Fringe in 1994, before they had an industrial district, and had “kind of more clear guidelines” on zoning in the county regarding industrial.

Janzen also said the county has spoken with the applicants over the development.

“This will ensure, when they do apply for their future development permits for their permanent structures, they have the right technical documents in place for their parcel and their development going forward,” said Janzen.

Council unanimously passed first reading of the bylaw. Councillors Robert Horvath and Morris Zeinstra were not in attendance during the meeting.

A public hearing for the bylaw is expected to take place during council’s Sept. 2 meeting.