MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - The county’s municipal planning commission (MPC) has approved a development permit for a proposed aggregate extraction/processing facility in the McDougal Flats rural neighbourhood west of Sundre.
The applicant and the owner of the project is Mountain View County.
The approval came by way of motion at the commission’s recent, regularly scheduled council meeting. The MPC is the county’s approving authority, and is made up of county councillors and appointed public members.
The project is located northwest of the Sundre Airport, south of Highway 584 at SE 32-32-5-5, with the total parcel size being 160 acres and the aggregate extraction/processing district being 138.1 acres.
The lands surrounding the subject quarter are a mix of aggregate extraction and processing district, industrial district, agricultural and agricultural (2) district, and country residential district.
Council approved the redesignation of approximately 159 acres from agricultural district (A) to aggregate extraction processing district to allow the development of a gravel extraction on Oct. 11, 2017.
“The approval of this pit will provide the county with the necessary reserve capacity to maintain the county’s extensive road network,” administration said in a briefing note to the committee. “This includes support for the maintenance of over 2,000 kilometres of gravel roads throughout the county.
“This application is being considered at this time, as the current McDougal pit (county-owned) is near the end of its life, and this will allow the transit into the new pit while the two pits overlap. The McDougal pit has two large stockpiles that will take approximately over year to fully remove from the property, no further crushing is required at this site.”
Three letters of concern were received as part of the notification process, with concerns expressed including cumulative impacts of additional gravel trucks on the road, safety of the intersection at 325b and 54B, environmental impacts, including relative impacts to groundwater quality and quantity, and dust from crushing and uncovered stockpiles.
The county's planning and development department supported the application, saying the subject property has received the appropriate zoning to apply for a development permit to operate a gravel pit.
In a letter from the Town of Sundre, senior development officer Betty Ann Fountain said, “The Town of Sundre believes the operation of the aggregate pit will not warrant any immediate concerns in regard to noise or dust. We note that the aggregate pit proposed is two miles southwest of the Town (of Sundre's) boundary, west of the airport and is outside the intermunicipal development plan referral requirements.”
Aggregate mining will not take place below the waterline at the site, said Ryan Morrison, director of operational services.
The approval comes with several dozen conditions, including the following:
• Asphalt plants are not permitted to be placed within SE 32-32-5-5. Should this be required, a new development permit shall be obtained from the county. Wet scrubber systems shall not be allowed through the permitting process for portable batch plants.
• No washing of aggregate is permitted without the issuance of further permits.
• All trucks leaving the pit seal be free of material outside of the haul box of the vehicle and are required to be tarped when hauling material.
• The county shall ensure a 30-metre setback has been placed around the gravel operation site used to store topsoil and overburden until it is required for reclamation purposes. The berms shall be placed along the eastern boundary of the quarter section within the development permit area.
• The applicants, landowner and/or operator shall maintain 165-metre setback from any dwelling.
County councillor and commission member Dwayne Fulton put forward the motion approving the permit for the proposed aggregate extraction/processing facility and berming for Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the project. The motion carried.
