By Roy Wood, Special to the Times Chronicle
An Osoyoos concrete product company continues to clear regulatory hurdles as it moves toward final separation of the two sides of the business.
The latest challenge for Osoyoos Aggregates and Osoyoos Ready Mix involves the subdivision of the roughly 57-hectare sand and gravel pit east of the town.
The quarry lies between Hwy. 3 and the US border just east of the Mountain Estates subdivision on Anarchist Mountain.
An application to divide the gravel pit exactly in half came before the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen (RDOS) board in January. According to a staff report, “The intent is for each of the two businesses to have their own gravel pit.”
The sticking point was that the regulations require that the setback from a parcel boundary for this sort of extraction business is 50 metres.
However, RDOS staff recognized the inherent absurdity of requiring such a setback between two parcels on which the exact same activity takes place.
CAO Jim Zaffina said in his report: “Administration … considers, in this context, that setbacks should not create artificial separation between identical industrial activities when nuisance, safety and spatial separation concerns are mitigated due to the similarity of uses/operations.”
The board approved the waiving of the setback requirement.
At the same meeting, the companies sought the support of the RDOS as it seeks to update its approvals from the Agricultural Land Commission to continue extracting sand and gravel from the land that is situated in the Agricultural Land Reserve.
According to a report from Zaffina, “Specifically, the applicant is seeking the Commission’s approval to remove 100,000 cubic metres of soil over an area of 13.3 ha, to an average depth of 10 metres and a maximum depth of 12 metres, over the course of 10 years.
“The application indicates that 500,000 cubic metres of soil has already been removed from the property over an area of 9.3 ha to an average depth of six metres and a maximum depth of 12 meters.”
Zaffina also noted that the applicant has submitted a reclamation plan for the parcel once it has finished its life as a gravel pit.
The plan “outlines the various works that would be undertaken to re-establish an agricultural capability consistent with the surrounding area and rehabilitate the lands for future grazing opportunities following the conclusion of the aggregate operation,” he noted.
The RDOS board approved the application.
An earlier separation initiative by the two companies was approved by Osoyoos town council in October, when they sought subdivision of their location at the northwest end of the Osoyoos Industrial Park.
The sticking point there was a provision of the Local Government Act requiring that at least 10 per cent of any property must front onto a roadway.
Agreeing there were no adverse effects from the less-than-10-per-cent frontage on one of the parcels, council approved the subdivision application.
Osoyoos Aggregates and Osoyoos Ready Mix currently share a website describing the services of both operations: sand, gravel, and other earth-related services; and a pre-mixed concrete supplier.
