BARRHEAD - County of Barrhead councillors question how important any comments they may or may not have about any proposed Natural Resource Conservation Board (NRCB) applications if the proposed project is almost complete.
That was the consensus of Barrhead municipal planning commission (MPC) members had during their June 3 meeting, in which they said the expansion plans of a county chicken producer essentially doubling its capacity, going from about 17,400 birds to over 30,200.
The NRCB is a quasi-judicial regulatory agency that is arms-length from the Government of Alberta (GOA). Its purpose is to provide for an impartial process to review projects that will or may affect the natural resources of Alberta.
County manager Debbie Oyarzun said the property is in an agricultural district and is developed containing the previously mentioned confined hen-laying feeding operation, including an existing layer barn.
The new infrastructure will include an 82-by-356-foot layer barn at the south end of the property, roughly 160 metres from the nearest neighbouring residence.
She added that, under the municipality's Land-use Bylaw, the new barn did not require a development permit from the municipality, and its proposed location met all the county's setbacks.
"In general, the application does appear to conform with our municipal development plan [MDP] and our Land-use Bylaw, but we need to provide some sort of comment to the NRCB," Oyarzun said.
She suggested that any proposed comment to the NRCB from the MCP include that the proposed development is in an Agricultural District and, as such, under the county's LUB, extensive agriculture is a permitted use, is consistent with the MDP and that it didn't fall within an area governed by any area structure or intermunicipal development plans.
"To put it into the context of the surrounding area [within 0.8 kilometres], 22 parcels are zoned agricultural, compared to 59 urban residential, 12 urban commercial, one commercial industrial, and two industrial, so it does fit that area," Oyarzun said.
Coun. Paul Properzi asked about how the operation planned to deal with manure, saying multiple constituents had voiced potential concerns about how the chickens' organic waste was to be disposed of.
Reeve Doug Drozd said the information they've received from the NCRB did not include that detail.
Drozd was also surprised by the density of development in the surrounding 0.8 kilometres or half a mile.
"This is a multi-million operation when you look at this kind of expansion," he said.
Deputy reeve Marvin Schatz asked when the chicken operation submitted their application to NRCB.
"Because the barn is just about built," he said. "If our comments were to be of any value, they needed to come much earlier. To make any comments now is a waste of our time."
Oyarzun said she did not know, but the municipality received the information package from the NCRB on May 13, adding the deadline for the municipality to respond was June 11.
Schatz added that he had no issues with the application itself but expressed concerns about the process, specifically regarding the timing, so that the MPC's comments on any proposed development would be relevant.
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
