A public information session was held on Oct. 15 for the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD)’s proposed changes to the zoning for agricultural land use between Halfmoon Bay and West Howe Sound.
Addressing a small turnout of 11 people, SCRD planner Gregory Gebka presented the proposed amendments to Bylaw 310, which would change the Rural 3 (RU3) zone to the Agriculture (AG) zone.
“The intent is to support agriculture where possible while recognizing that there are other land uses and there is also an intent to minimize land-use conflicts, particularly in residential areas,” Gebka said.
Many of the questions that came up at the public info session were about the use of lounge areas in breweries, cideries, wineries and meaderies. People were mostly concerned that living next to a brewery would cause noise issues, especially if there was live music or if they stay open late on weekends.
“The activities associated with lounges are a concern, so we need to address that with concern to potential noise, potential traffic and potential parking concerns,” Gebka said. “So we’ll prepare a report to the SCRD board through its planning and development committee. That should be in November.”
Another issue that came up is the potential for misuse of agricultural lands. A person could potentially buy a large tract of AG-zoned land, and then develop it as an estate instead of cultivating the land for agricultural uses.
“Residential uses obviously are a sensitive issue because we understand that in order to make agriculture work, we need to have affordable housing and have options for housing farmers and farm workers,” Gebka said. “At the same time we need to recognize that agriculture does have the potential of being displaced by residential use, in areas where agriculture is supposed to be the priority use.”
One of the bigger changes under the AG zone draft addresses the rearing of livestock, which Gebka said is lacking under the current RU3 zone.
“The RU3 zone does provide for agriculture – but if you look at the definition of agriculture in the current bylaw, it relates only to food growing, that is, the production of crops,” Gebka said. “There’s no mention, in the current definition, of livestock or rearing of livestock. So that’s probably the biggest change is that it now explicitly addresses the rearing of livestock.”
The draft AG zone sets out conditions for livestock including the slaughter of animals for food products and the use of animal by-products like milk or cheese. The draft AG zone sets requirements that processing activities need to comprise 50 per cent of products produced on the farm. This applies to alcohol and livestock products. For example, 50 per cent of the ingredients in a beer would need to be produced on site.
A report from the public information session will be given to the SCRD planning and development committee, which will decide how to proceed. Gebka said he is recommending that the proposed changes come back to another public information session.
“It would give a chance to really flesh out the approach to some of these sensitive issues,” he said.
If a second public info session is held, it would likely be in early December.
