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Operation seeks ALR exclusion

Company makes application to exclude two Spallumcheen lots from Agricultural Land Reserve
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Vernon Paving has Spallumcheen council’s support for its application to exclude a pair of lots from the Agricultural Land Reserve. (Township of Spallumcheen photo)

An application by a mining operation to exclude some Spallumcheen property from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) has received support.

With a condition.

Township council unanimously supported the application from Vernon Paving – a division of Lafarge Canada Inc. – to exclude a pair of lots in the 1500 block of Blattner Road from the ALR. This would line up the existing aggregate extraction and processing use of the land with the township’s official community plan which designates the land use of the properties as industrial.

Zoning of the properties is I.5 soil removal and processing.

Support, however, is contingent on a covenant being placed upon the application which states that the company must only use the property for soil extraction.

“The property is above a major aquifer and we may need access to that aquifer at some point,” said Mayor Janice Brown.

The removal of the properties from the ALR would allow for the continuation of industrial aggregate extraction and processing.

The subject properties are located at the end of Blattner Road and are used for vehicle storage, gravel and asphalt processing and a stormwater storage pond.

Vernon Paving has been operating an asphalt plant on one of the lots since the 1980s. Continued development and expansion into the other lot is part of the company’s expansion plans.

The proposed exclusion requires the approval of the Agricultural Land Commission.