Sturgeon County council backed off on a simple change to how the lands near towns could be used after it became a lightning rod for opposition from local farmers.
Council voted 6-1 on Tuesday against a proposal to change intensive agricultural use with farmstead from a permitted to a discretionary use in the Urban Fringe District. Coun. Joe Milligan cast the lone supporting vote.
The Urban Fringe designation applies to lands located a few kilometres around Legal, Bon Accord, Gibbons and Redwater, and allows farmers to set up greenhouses, market gardens and tree nurseries on their property. The bill, had it been passed, would have required those operations to get county approval first in order to prevent potential conflicts with nearby residents.
It was a simple change that triggered an explosion of dissent. It was standing room only Tuesday at council as some 40 residents flooded chambers to speak on the proposal.
Rural Alberta is supposed to be for farmers, said farmer Vivian Visscher, yet this bill would put limits on farming within seven kilometres of Legal. "Seven kilometres from Legal is rural Alberta, is it not?" This law would restrict farming on 100 quarter-sections of prime agricultural land for the sake of the town in the middle of them, she argued.
This bill was meant to help Hewitt Estates residents deal with an unruly neighbour, said resident Tamara Cail, not hurt farmers everywhere. "I don't think the situation we're dealing with in our neighbourhood has anything to do with farming," she said. "Our situation has to do with a disrespectful neighbour."
Long history
Council documents show that Milligan originally proposed this motion in November 2010 in response to a dispute in Hewitt Estates, a community about two kilometres south of Bon Accord.
Residents, such as Ken Derraugh, had complained about the actions of a landowner who was operating a tree farm on a 13-hectare plot in the region. The property has multiple holes, unfinished buildings, trees and gravel piles, as well as heavy machinery, Derraugh told council. "There are Bobcats waking me up at three in the morning," he said. "It is not a farm. It is not agricultural. It is commercial and it is disgusting."
County officials later determined that the tree farm was illegal and involved unauthorized water diversions from the Sturgeon River. They issued a stop-work order, which was upheld on appeal. This bill, administrators said, was a way to prevent similar problems from happening in the future.
The bill sailed past second reading with little opposition and no speakers at its public hearing. When it came up for third reading at June 28, Coun. David Kluthe noted a number of residents in the audience who wanted to speak on it and moved for a second public hearing.
‘Stab in the back'
Michiel Verheul, president of the Alberta Greenhouse Growers Association, was one of many farmers to blast the bill as anti-business and anti-farmer. Sturgeon County clearly wants to promote local food production through events like the Sturgeon County Bounty, but did not consult farmers on this change.
"The proposed bylaw change is nothing less than a stab in the back," he said.
Farmers are already subject to countless rules and regulations at the county and provincial level, said a passionate John Kampjes. "Any more rules and Sturgeon County will be eating Australian beef, American pork and drinking American milk." If towns wanted control over these fringe areas, he argued, they should buy them.
Former county reeve Lawrence Kluthe accused council of "selling us out" with this bill, as it put control over farmland in the hands of urbanites. "We've got 254 quarter-sections of land now that is subject to the whims of urban centres that happened to be in the centre [of them]," he said. "Why are you giving away the rights on 250 quarter-sections to a town that has a handful of people in it?"
Two-class system, says mayor
Mayor Donald Rigney said he opposed this bill from the start.
"I think it does more harm than good," he said. "We're creating two classes of citizens — those inside [the fringe] and those outside — and, to some degree, protecting citizens in towns and villages more than our own [residents.]"
This bill was meant to be a tool to fix a problem, said Coun. Ken McGillis, but it clearly does not have public support. "It wasn't an effort to go forward and trample on everyone's rights."
Farmers shouldn't have to pay for the actions of one person, Derraugh said after the vote. "I'm sorry that one gentleman has brought everyone to this point."
