By Adam Jackson
Confined feeding operators and residential developers alike are pleased to hear Ponoka County has abandoned its Battle River acreage study.
The decision came during the July 19 council meeting, where Bob Riddett of West Central Planning Agency presented a report on the controversial study.
Coun. Gawney Hinkley moved to abandon the project and council unanimously agreed.
“There have never been as many people in (the council chamber) as there were when we had that hearing,” said CAO Charlie Cutforth.
The plan was to create compatibility in the area on the banks of the river that is desirable for farm and residential acreage use. But with the rules came the controversy with CFO operators. It would have effectively capped their ability to expand if their herd expanded to more than 400 head.
“Council basically resolved to put it back in the drawer,” said Ponoka assistant CAO Tom Webber. “It caused more problems than it intended to address.”
“The main concern with the study is that the banks of the river are best used for residential purposes,” said Webber. “As you could see at the public hearing, it really struck a chord with all the farmers around there.”
Some farmers who planned to subdivide their land and sell residential lots were frustrated with the plan.
“None of them want to be precluded from not being able to expand or anything,” said Webber.
One of many letters received by Ponoka County, from Bert and Melanie Vleeming, says that the study isn’t fair to the farmers.
“The major problem with this plan is that it is incorporating setbacks which infringe on other land owners’ property,” they said in their letter.
Maps created by West Central Planning Agency clearly mark areas that would be suitable for residential use and set a minimum distance of 800 metres between the CFOs and residential lots.
Rezoning and subdivision applications will now be looked at on a case-by-case basis by council itself at its regular meetings.
Part of the reason for the plan, Webber says, is the fact that AltaLink was looking to upgrade power lines through that area. When farmers found out about this, there was an extreme push to rezone to country residential to maximize the return for the land surrendered.
“With their current farm land, they would get around $4,000 per acre and if it was country residential land, they would get upwards of $10,000,” said Webber.