Red Deer County council found itself in a deadlock last week when voting on amendments to a camping bylaw that would legalize campsites on private farmland.The group, missing Div. 6 Coun. George Gehrke, was split 3-3 over the proposed size a campsite on agricultural land can be. Instead of moving on to third reading, which if the vote split again would defeat the bylaw entirely and with it the amendments that had already passed, council agreed to defer the vote until next meeting.Small campgrounds continue to crop up on agriculturally zoned land even though currently they are only permitted on commercial recreation land within the county.Because of the demand, the bylaw was drafted to provide the potential for development of appropriately located and sized campground development on agricultural land, a report to council explains.Council couldn't agree on the minimum size a minor campground should be. A minor campground has fewer than 20 sites. Administration recommended an unsubdivided quarter section.Div. 3 Coun. Penny Archibald pointed out there are many smaller campgrounds, such as the Anthony Henday campground in Innisfail, that are well treed and “beautiful.”“It's full all the time,” she said. “There is a place for a campground and it doesn't have to be a quarter section.”Div. 4 Coun. David Hoar suggested approving the amendment for a quarter section with the option of changing it later if there are a lot of requests coming in for smaller sizes.“We've been dealing with this for over a year now. It's May and people want to go camping and we're dilly-dallying along,” he said.Div. 1 Coun. Philip Massier disagreed. “Why would people even bother to apply if they see it has to be 160 acres?” he said of Hoar's suggestion.Archibald proposed changing the size for minor campgrounds to 40 acres and the vote split with Archibald, Massier and Mayor Jim Wood in support.Council did agree to two amendments. One would allow camping at major campgrounds during all seasons but not allow people to reside at the campground year round. They also agreed that a minor campground will be considered a temporary use and will have a fixed expiry date specified in a development permit. The size of the major and minor campgrounds will be voted on, as well as third reading, during the June 5 council meeting.
