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plenty of complaints

Clearwater County goes back to the drawing board with Land Use Bylaw amendments

May 12, 2020 | 4:58 PM

Clearwater County Council held a public hearing on Tuesday in regards proposed changes to the county’s Land Use Bylaw.

After residents saw what changes were being looked, councillors stated that they had received multiple complaints, most notable in regards to livestock, holiday trailers, and sea containers.

County originally adopted the land use bylaw in September 2001, following changes to the County’s Municipal Development Plan (MDP). Administration noted that the document was not meant for large updates or any major changes, only for points of clarifications.

Under the Minor Agricultural Pursuits section of the bylaw, which states that someone can use their Country Residence Agriculture “CRA”, and Country Residence “CR” district parcels for a small number of livestock for exclusive use of the occupant of the lot, a sentence was added stating that no sales of the livestock, or sales of the production associated with the livestock, would be permitted.

Senior Planner Jose Reyes stated that, “The purpose of this was to differentiate between someone enjoying livestock for their own purposes and someone having a full farming operation on an acreage.”

He explained that over the years the County had received several complaints of acreage owners having large amounts of animals that had affected their neighbours.

“It was never our intentions to prohibit the sales of products… A revised definition will be brought up to council by second reading,” Reyes explained.

The Land Use Bylaw also expanded to clarify that holiday trailers or RVs could only be parked on a residential property where a dwelling already exists and there could only be one.

Administration clarified that if someone were to obtain a permit, residents could live in a holiday trailer while constructing a dwelling.

The third largest complaint was the inclusion of a definition and set of rules for Sea Containers which right now are considered auxiliary buildings.

The new description says that Sea Containers can only be located where a permanent dwelling already exists, be used for storage only, be painted to match the principal building, be screened from view of neighbours and public roads, cannot display advertising, and residents are only allowed three.

The public hearing was held remotely due to COVID-19 and could only be attended via livestream with those wishing to voice their opinions only able to do so over the phone.

None spoke in favour of the bylaw revisions while many waited their turn to speak against.

Other complaints came in over the time of day that the public hearing was being held, while others said neighbours and friends didn’t have internet fast enough to watch the meeting.

Reeve Timothy Hoven was forced to stop the hearing and a decision was made by council to table the hearing and move it to a later time.

Director of Planning & Development Keith McCrae reiterated, “We have heard the concerns of the public, and we will definitely be looking into it before it is brought back.”