Mountain View County's municipal planning commission has been asked to review and provide comments on the new rural commercial district designation being proposed for the municipality.
Mountain View County's municipal planning commission has been asked to review and provide comments on the new rural commercial district designation being proposed for the municipality.
The new district is being proposed to better deal with a rise in the number of businesses and similar small-scale commercial activities being proposed in agricultural zoned land in the county.
Discretionary uses that would fall under the new district would include abattoir, accessory retain, agri-tourism, animal health-care services, auctioneering services (livestock and non-livestock), bed and breakfast, eating establishments (indoor and outdoor), farmers markets, horticulture use, and market gardens.
Regulations still under consideration that would apply to every development in the district would include:
• Parcel area minimum 40 metres from the property line adjacent to any paved or hard surface county road allowance.
• Front yard minimum 60 metres from the property line from any gravel county road allowance, minimum 15 metres from portable farm buildings and exempt accessory building.
• Rear yard minimum 15 metres.
• Side yard same as the required front yard from the statutory road allowance.
• Other setbacks include sewage lagoons and treatment plants 300 metres, landfill site and waste transfer station 300 metres, dwelling unit 12.2 metres, pipelines and oil and gas facilities as consistent with current provincial regulations.
Other development regulations include "for unique circumstances, a maximum of six recreational vehicles may be allowed to be kept on a temporary basis for a maximum of 30 consecutive days" and "as a condition of subdivision of development approval, the county may require guaranteed security to ensure the timely completion of the subdivision and/or development approval conditions."
"Administration is receiving a lot more proposals for farm related commercial uses," planning director John Rusling said in a note to the municipal planning commission. "The uses proposed do not fit within the uses mentioned in the agricultural district but would be considered more commercial in nature.
"These uses create more of an impact within a community and are not necessarily considered subsidiary to farming operation occurring on site. With this regard historically these types of uses have been required to apply for direct control zoning to accommodate the proposed use.
"With requests of these types of uses increasing, and the need for potential farm diversification in Mountain View County, administration has acknowledged that there is a need for a rural commercial district to allow more agriculture related rural businesses to be permitted within the county."
As part of the creation of the new district, a number of definitions would be added to the land use bylaw, including the following:
• Accessory retail means the retail sale of various products that is incidental to a primary use conducted on the same premises. Examples of these uses include a gift shop, on-site convenience stores, artisan/craft product manufacturing use with an incidental retail sales area.
• Farmers market means an occasional or periodic market held in an open area, building or portion thereof where groups of individuals offer goods and services for sale to the public. The activities permitted are the retail sale of food, clothing, arts and crafts, second-hand items, plants and products of a similar nature.
• Market garden means an area of land where vegetables and fruit are grown to be sold and/or are produced off-site and then imported to the site for the purposes of retailing from subject property. This use may include, but is not limited to, nurseries, nursery sales stations and greenhouses.
The county's agriculture services board has also been asked to make comments on the proposed new district.
