Photo: Darren Handschuh
The City of Kelowna is moving ahead in an effort to change zoning bylaws on ALR land to more closely align with provincial policies.
Council agreed unanimously Monday to have planning staff craft a bylaw that would give farmers or property owners the ability to add both carriage houses and secondary suites onto ALR land.
At present, the city will allow one or the other, but not both.
The item came forward in response to similar changes in regulations made by the Agricultural Land Commission in 2021.
Planner Dean Strachan said the city has yet to make zoning bylaw changes to match those of the province.
“The current regulations limit the size of a carriage house to 90 square metres,” Strachan told council. “The ALC regulations allow for slightly larger ones on larger parcels and the proposal that council could consider is aligning with the ALC regulation or maintaining the current regulation.
“A significant change that came through the ALC’s regulation was not to require it to be a family member or somebody directly employed by the farm, so it expanded the opportunity for the farmer to not only have the farm revenue but also a rental unit on their property.”
While this could impact as many as 1,296 properties ranging in size from one to 40 hectares, Strachan said he doesn’t believe the city would ever get more than five to 10 applications a year.
With those properties spread out across the outer limits of the city outside the permanent growth boundary, he said the impacts on things like traffic would be negligible. He said the actual size of a carriage home would be dictated by the size of the property. Those larger than 40 hectares would be able to build a carriage home nearly double the 90 square metres allowed presently.
“The rationale behind the ALC’s changes was to reflect that families are utilizing farmland in a different way and farm owners are looking for opportunities to not only have their farm workers live on the property but potentially to rent to other people,” Coun. Loyal Wooldridge said. “This policy aligns well with the direction the provincial policy is moving.
“What I have learned a lot from the agricultural community, especially inter-generational families is having more flexibility for housing. We know a lot of families need to live together in order to farm the land more efficiently.”
Coun. Charlie Hodge, an advocate for protecting ALR lands, called the proposal a win-win for everyone.
“We also have to be cognizant of the fact there is a shortage of farm labour,” Coun. Mohini Singh said. “Bringing families together to work on the family farm gives them the ability to live closer together.”
Should council give first reading to a proposed bylaw, it would then go to a public hearing.
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