By Lyonel Doherty, Times Chronicle
Regional district staff have recommended that an agricultural warehouse addition in rural Oliver be denied, but the local planning commission wants to look at it first.
Chief Administrative Officer Bill Newell said the development variance application for 577 Road 2 seeks to construct a 1,858 square metre addition to a fruit and vegetable processing warehouse. It is being proposed to increase the maximum parcel coverage from 10 per cent to 16 per cent.
Newell said since the “very large” warehouse exceeds the maximum coverage allowed, staff believe the application should be denied.
But Area C director Rick Knodel said rural Oliver’s Advisory Planning Commission (APC) wants to review the proposal before a decision is made.
The applicants state they need to expand their existing facility to package their own produce. With the addition of the 20,000 square foot expansion, the total warehouse space would be 33,722 square feet (3,132 square metres).
“It would make little sense to build an entirely new facility on a different property in the RDOS as there would be larger environmental and economic impacts for this, along with more ALR land being used,” said property owner Surinder Mann.
He noted the addition would not block any nearby properties or adversely affect them.
Mann pointed out the current parcel coverage limit is not enough to sustain their agricultural activities.
He said the area where the expansion would occur has very few trees, and the rest of the orchard would not be impacted by it.
But regional planner Shannon Duong said the expansion would require the removal of approximately 743 square metres of existing orchard.
Duong indicated another option would be to build the expansion on top of the existing warehouse (as a second storey).
The planner said the purpose of establishing maximum parcel coverage regulations is to restrict building footprints that could have negative impacts on agricultural capabilities.
