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Canadian Rockies Ag. wins appeal dismissal

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In dramatic fashion, Canadian Rockies Agriculture Inc. has won the right to build a medical marijuana facility in Josephburg.

On June 7, Strathcona County’s Subdivision and Development Appeal Board rendered a split 2-2 decision, thus dismissing an appeal filed by a group of Josephburg residents who opposed the 74-acre medical cannabis production company. In order to revoke the application, an outright majority is required and a tie wasn’t enough. Canadian Rockies Agriculture’s chief executive Aaron Barr was elated by the appeal dismissal and called it a huge win for his business.

“I was ecstatic and relieved by the decision,” Barr said. “We honestly had no idea what to expect in terms of the outcome.”

Even though the project can now move ahead with planning and design, the SDAB added additional conditions such as higher standards to reduce light, noise and odour pollution.

“Our HVAC equipment can’t be louder than 53 decibels and all of our lighting needs to be 3,000 Kelvin or less in temperature, which are all completely reasonable conditions. (We) will obviously make it the least intrusive as we possibly can for our neighbours in the surrounding area,” outlined Barr.

After Canadian Rockies Agriculture filed a development proposal to the county to build on an abandoned elk farm in April 2017, the contentious project drew push back from concerned Josephburg residents in regards to traffic congestion, security, air quality, crop protection and noise issues. The company’s original development permit was categorized as a permitted use with conditions in November 2017 but that was revoked by the SDAB after residents appealed its approval. Then, Barr submitted a second application for a discretionary use in December 2017. The application contained a number of changes, including reducing the size of the largest building from 100,000 square feet to 36,000 square feet, and the number of exterior light poles from 30 to one. With those changes, the county approved the application. Upset by that decision, Josephburg residents filed a second appeal, which outlined the development authority’s approval violated a section of the Land Use Bylaw.

More specifically, the section in question states that when a permit has been refused, no application can be made for the same, or substantially the same, development for a period of one year unless the development conforms to the bylaw.

However, according to the SDAB publicly-released notice of decision, the section in question didn’t apply in this case.

Barr attributes his SDAB win to the expert testimony provided by his engineers, lawyers and other professionals.

“Unfortunately, this time was a lot more costly and time-consuming, but we obviously got the outcome we wanted,” he said.

A spokesperson for the 10 affected Josephburg neighbours declined to comment about the SDAB decision, however they did tell Postmedia Network they are planning on filing another appeal.

The whole appeal process pushed the project back by four months but now it’s full steam ahead with the detailed engineering plans for the 13 buildings totalling 110,000 square feet. Those plans are subject to approval by the county. Canadian Rockies Agriculture expects to break ground by the end of the summer. It’s currently working on securing its Health Canada licence.

The company is also looking to build a hemp production facility in Bruderheim and will discuss the potential project with town council in early July. If approved, construction could begin in August with operations ramping up next spring or summer.

— With files from Zach Muller

lmorey@postmedia.com

twitter.com/LindsayDMorey

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