At their April 26 meeting, Barrhead town councillors unanimously accepted a request from an applicant to withdraw a zoning request and cancel any further readings of Bylaw 06-2016.
The bylaw, which council gave first reading to Feb. 9 would allow the property owner of a lot (680KS, Block 9, Lot 1) on 54 Ave. be rezoned from R2 residential to R3 residential medium density.
The R2 designation allows property owners to build a single-family dwelling, or a duplex, while the R3 designation allows a tri-plex or four-plex to be built.
On Tuesday, March 8, about 20 residents packed into town council chamber to voice their opinions (see the March 15 issue for more details), mostly negative during a public hearing. After council decided to refer the issue to the Municipal Planning Commission so they could review the concerns brought up.
Municipal Planning Commission Report:
Mayor St. Pierre, during the Municipal Planning Commission (MPC) report, which he presented with Coun. Ty Assaf, said the MPC has approved an application that will allow a multi-dwelling unit to subdivide to a future town council meeting. The other issue the MPC discussed is sea containers, often referred to as seacans.
St. Pierre said the town have recently received a complaint about a residence, which has two of these metal storage containers.
“They will be given six months to make the containers conform to the land-use bylaw and make them look more like proper sheds,” he said.
Champion Feed Services
St. Pierre reiterated how sad all of town council is following the news that Hi-Pro Feeds will permanently close the Barrhead Champion Feed Services mill.
“Unfortunately, whenever bad news like this is announced there is a tendency to look for someone to blame and often it is the government, whether it be the federal, provincial or in this case the municipal government,” he said, adding many councillors have received comments blaming the town’s high tax rate for the closure.
St. Pierre said while the closure is unfortunate it is not true that municipal taxes were the cause of the closure. In the April 26, issue of the Leader, Martin Taylor, Barrhead’s chief administrative officer, said Daren Kennett, Hi-Pro Feeds founder and senior vice-president of sales and marketing, told him the reason why the company was closing the Barrhead location was to consolidate its operations and there was nothing the town could have done to prevent it.
“I just want to make it clear the closure isn’t because our taxes are too high,” St. Pierre said. “Our taxes, especially our non-residential rates, even with the aquatic centre debenture, our taxes are five to six mills lower than the Town of Westlock.”
