The Regional District of Central Kootenay has tentatively voted in favour of a planned expansion for wood products manufacturer Spearhead on the North Shore, but held off on a final decision until a pair of conditions are met.
Spearhead had asked the RDCK to rezone the properties that adjoin its current facility at 4655 Highway 3A from residential to industrial.
After several months of information-gathering and three public hearings, the RDCK board decided at its May 15 meeting that it needs two further pieces of information in order to finally decide on the zoning.
First, the RDCK requires approval of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure regarding the details of highway access to the proposed facility.
Second, the board has asked that a covenant be prepared and placed on the title of the property that would require Spearhead to comply with the recommendations of a professional environmental consultant before a building permit is issued.
The consultant in question is Active Earth, hired by Spearhead, which wrote an environmental assessment report on the project that was generally favourable. Some of its conclusions were then questioned by another consultant, McElhanny, hired by a neighbourhood group.
In a document dated April 16, Active Earth proposed solutions or mitigating actions that could be taken in response to McElhanny's concerns.
Those actions include improvements in effluent filtration, storm water management, water well management, mitigation of possible effects on an aquifer, and management of liquid chemicals. These actions will form the basis of the covenant.
The board passed the first three readings of the zoning bylaw but will withhold its adoption until the MOTI approval and the covenant are in place.
Tom Newell, the director for RDCK Area F in which Spearhead is located, expressed confidence in those actions and spoke in favour of the motion.
RDCK documents show that in the three public hearings between January and May, 201 people spoke or wrote letters in favour of the re-zoning and 104 spoke or wrote against it.
On April 24, the provincial government announced a $7.5-million grant for the new expanded facility, despite the lack of appropriate zoning at the time.
