Mountain View County councillors will be examining proposed amendments to the land use bylaw regarding gravel pits in the county.
During the recent policies and priorities committee meeting, councillors received a report from administration on possible amendments to the bylaw.
In November councillors instructed administration to come forward with a process that would require large-scale gravel pits to be redesignated.
Gravel pits are currently a discretionary use under the land use bylaw, meaning a person applies for a development permit and then has it move through the municipal planning committee process.
The amendments proposed by administration would include a requirement that all new pits be redesignated regardless of size, and that anything that is mined (such as sand, gravel, peat, clay, shale and stone) be redesignated.
The amendment would also add the following: "Portable batch plant: means an operating installation of equipment including batchers and mixers as required for the preparation of materials such as concrete and asphalt aggregate mixtures.î
The amendment would also introduce a new district into the land use bylaw called "aggregate extraction/processing districtî.
The purpose of that district would be to permit the "removal, extraction, processing and transmission of raw aggregate materials for commercial purposes.î
Regulations that would apply to developments in that new district would include minimum distances from property lines adjacent to any paved or hard surface county road allowance and any gravel county road allowance.
Council is expected to consider the proposed amendments at an upcoming council meeting, perhaps on Jan. 9.
