County looking at land-use bylaw amendment for property near Nobleford

Property would be rezoned to Business Light Industrial

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

Lethbridge County is considering a land-use amendment off Highway 519 by Nobleford.

During their regular Feb. 7 meeting, Lethbridge County council consider a land-use bylaw amendment to rezone a property southeast of the Town of Nobleford to Business Light Industrial (BLI).

Bylaw 20-002 would amend the county’s Land Use Bylaw to rezone 16 acres of Plan 0411743 Block 2 Lot 1 in the NE 34-10-23-W4 from Rural Agriculture (RA) to BLI in order to allow for the expansion of an existing industrial use.

“From what I understand, the landowner is wishing to sell their property, and the potential new buyer would like to have the opportunity to have some different uses contained within that building (on the site),” said Hilary Janzen, senior planner for the county.

“Right now, it is zoned Rural Agriculture, and so under Rural Agriculture it’s somewhat limited in commercial and industrial uses that they can have on that property.”

Rezoning the property under the BLI land district would allow for the addition of new light industrial uses on the property. The proposed amendment is also consistent with the policies within the Lethbridge County-Town of Nobleford Intermunicipal Development Plan.

“Previous discussions with the Town of Nobleford, and actually, one of the amendments we made to the Intermunicipal Development Plan (with Nobleford) last year was to consider this particular area for commercial and industrial, light industrial uses, and both councils agreed to that and it was adopted as part of that Intermunicipal Development Plan.”

Coun. Klaas Vander Veen noted that in the IDP, they had discussed that if further development would take place on that parcel, the access to the property would come from the gravel road there. Janzen said she did inform the applicant that if they did expand the existing business or add new structures, the access would likely be moved onto the range road, instead of coming off the highway there.

“This is, as you’re probably all aware, this is in a sloped area, so the sight lines coming out of that driveway aren’t particularly good,” said Janzen. “That would also be done in consultation with Alberta Transportation. Right now, it is kind of minimal traffic, and if the use they proposed is of the similar (type), they would stay. But as soon as they intensify that use, it would have to be moved.”

Council unanimously passed first reading of Bylaw 20-002. The public hearing for the bylaw is expected to take place at the March 19 council meeting.

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