BARRHEAD - A County of Barrhead farm near High Ridge received the official go-ahead to build a duplex to house some of its workers.
County of Barrhead councillors approved Semler Farms' development application for the building during the Feb. 7 municipal planning commission meeting.
Development officer Jenny Bruns said the developer plans to use a 1,555 square-foot two-story duplex with an attached garage as housing for their employees, adding the parcel is in an agricultural district and is a cluster farm.
She stated that clustered farm dwellings and duplexes are allowed as discretionary uses under the county's land-use bylaw.
To be classified as a cluster farm under the county's land-use bylaw, it must have one or more multiple-family dwellings on a farm unit of a minimum of 320 acres, and the residents of the housing units must have to be employed in agriculture or intensive agriculture for at least six months of the year.
Bruns noted the colony easily meets the 320-acre land requirement, and the proposed development meets all the required setbacks.
She added that the land is not presently eligible for subdivision, and thus, the duplex will remain within the farm parcel.
In his application package, Semler Farm owner Jason Semler stated that he has found attracting and retaining workers challenging.
"On many occasions, skilled workers have wanted to work for Semler Farms, but they could not find suitable accommodations soon enough and ended up taking employment elsewhere," he said.
He added that although the farm had sometimes agreed with local landlords to lease their properties for their employees, the situation was tentative at best as the properties would often change hands, forcing the farm to look for new accommodations for its employees or be faced with losing them.
Semler also stated that not only is it difficult to find rental accommodations in the area, but it is even more challenging to find housing up to the standards expected of those with higher incomes.
"Even though the construction cost is high, it seems necessary to attract long-term management-qualified employees," he said.
Reeve Doug Drozd said the challenge of finding appropriate, affordable rental housing is common to the applicant, noting other businesses in the area are experiencing the same issue as those in other regions.
"I visited a meat packing plant in southern Alberta last summer that was buying land to build an apartment building to accommodate their workers," he said.
Later in the meeting, development and communications coordinator Adam Vanderwekken said the local Rural Renewal Stream (RSS) program switched to only accepting applications from temporary foreign workers who already work in the community due to the lack of affordable rental housing.
RRS enables rural communities with less than 100,000 people to attract and retain immigrants by working with local employers and settlement-providing organizations to offer employment and support services, including housing, language training, health care, and education.
The program is part of the province's Alberta Advantage Immigration Program (AAIP). The AAIP is part of the province's effort to combat the province's labour shortage. It does this by helping employers recruit foreign nationals to apply for jobs.
