A Salmon Arm resident is contesting the city's need of agricultural land for industrial use.
Through a petition launched early February 2025, Claire Askew raises a concern with the latest draft of the official community plan (OCP) and, in particular, language within that proposes submitting an application to the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) to exclude agricultural land from an identified 146-acre Industrial Special Development Area west of Highway 97B between 10th Avenue SE and the Shuswap Regional Airport.
In the petition "against the proposed 146-acre Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) exclusion," Askew notes the exclusion was endorsed for removal by the ALC in 1988, but says this should not be the basis for the city’s ongoing reasoning for the exclusion as much has changed since then, "including a growing awareness that farmland supports community resiliency by providing opportunities for local food production and processing, flood control and fire suppression, and when managed sustainably, supports biodiversity and ecosystem services like clean drinking water, carbon sequestration and wildlife habitat."
"If a new industrial park is truly needed in the future, let’s build it then, but for now focus on real community driven priorities like fixing our failing recreation facilities and leave the 146 acres of land near the airport in the ALR," reads the petition.
The city's current OCP is from 2011, while the review process for its replacement is nearing completion.
The draft OCP notes the ALC has given "preliminary approval for exclusion of these lands… through a block-style exclusion application by the City and rezoning of lands to industrial zoning."
"It’s really important to be talking to the city about this now while they’re working on their OCP, because once the plan is in the OCP then it will be much more difficult for anyone to fight it in the future…," said Askew, whose contention with the exclusion has to do with present need.
"I discovered in the last OCP (the city) had hired consultants to do a study and it actually showed there was adequate industrial land for decades to come…," said Askew, who said the city should wait until the next OCP review to determine the need for additional industrial land.
"For me the biggest concern, I don’t see this as a smart growth strategy and instead I think it’s being driven by the financial interests of a few land owners. I don’t begrudge anyone getting a big windfall from their property being upzoned, but that should only happen when there’s evidence to show there’s a true community benefit and I just don’t see that in this case."
Salmon Arm director of planning and community services Gary Buxton, who has overseen the OCP review process, suggested it is unlikely the city can wait another 14 years to secure the land for industrial use.
"We’ve done a high level evaluation of how much industrial land has been consumed or developed in the last 10 to15 years, looking at if we extrapolate those trends out, are we going to need more industrial land in the next 10-15 years. We think the answer to that is yes," said Buxton. "I know that Ms. Askew has done an evaluation using different numbers but we think our numbers hold up. We think in the next 10-15 years, the lifespan of this next OCP, we’re probably going to need more industrial land, and that process of getting stuff out of the reserve and getting it ready for development is a years-long process."
With the revised OCP, the city is preparing for that to happen, though there is no timeline for extraction of the 66 acres of ALR land remaining within the Industrial Special Development Area. There are also no commitments around extending municipal services to the area.
"Any expenditure on those would need to be prioritized against everything else that we need to do," said Buxton. "As Ms. Askew has noted, there are lots of community demands in the new OCP for upgraded facilities. A council, when they get to the decision of whether they want to spend any money on servicing those lands, those discussions would need to be balanced against every other demand for municipal expenditures at that point in time."
Buxton confirmed Askew's concerns were received for the review of the OCP, and said the current draft is scheduled to be on the agenda for the March 17 meeting of the city's development and planning services committee.
