Kneehill County passes first reading on landfill re-zoning

Kneehill County council passed first reading of bylaws needed to re-zone land for a new landfill. The first readings were passed at the March 26 regular meeting of council.

Manager of Planning and Development Barb Hazelton presented two bylaws that would re-zone two agricultural parcels to “direct control” zone to allow the development of a landfill; Hazelton explained these are amendments to Kneehill County’s Land Use Bylaw (LUB).

“Waste Connection of Canada Inc. (WCC) proposes to develop a class II integrated waste management facility (IWMF) in Kneehill County,” stated Hazelton’s report to council.

“The IWMF is privately operated and is a non-hazardous landfill facility that specializes in the collection, transportation, processing, recycling, treatment and disposal of various types of waste generated by businesses, industry, commercial, institutional and agricultural operations and residential communities.

“The total IWMF site is about 536.86 acres (about 217.23 ha) and is situated in section 2-029-24-W4M north of Twp Road 29-0 and east of RR 24-2.

“The majority of this section falls under the agriculture district. However, a portion of the NW 2-029 24-W4 has been designated local rural commercial district.

“To facilitate this development, WCC is seeking to re-designate the subject site into two direct control (DC) land use districts.

“The DC 7 district covers the portion of the site dedicated to the uses required to operate a landfill, consisting of this primary use and including the required critical infrastructure. The DC 8 district covers the remainder of the site.

“The uses in the DC 8 district may include some of the critical infrastructure, as well as the potential for some recycling and construction materials waste management.”

The site in question could be generally described as west of Hwy. #21 and southwest of Carbon, Alta.
Readers may note that DC zones are somewhat different from typical land zones in that the council themselves acts as the development authority and not a Municipal Planning Commission (MPC).

Hence, any developments or changes to a DC zone come to council, not to the MPC.

Hazelton pointed out several times in her report and verbally that this application was only for the re-zoning of property, not the When asked if the landfill application fails, does the property remain DC, Hazelton said its up to the property owner as it could also revert back to agriculture if desired.

Reeve Ken King summarized re-zoning is the first step in a lengthy landfill approval process. Hazelton responded, “Yes, it will be quite lengthy.” She added that not only will there be a chance for the public to comment at the public hearing, but the provincial approval process also offers chances for public comment.

Councillors unanimously passed first reading of both bylaws and set the public hearing for the re-zoning Apr. 23 at the Kneehill County office.

Stu Salkeld
Local Journalism Initiative reporter
ECA Review

About the author

Stu Salkeld

Stu Salkeld, who has upwards of 28 years of experience in the Alberta community newspaper industry, is now covering councils and other news in the Stettler region and has experience working in the area as well.

He has joined the ECA Review as a Local Journalism Initiative Journalist.

Stu earned his two-year diploma in print journalism from SAIT in Calgary from 1993 to ’95 and was raised in Oyen, Alta., one of the communities within the ECA Review’s coverage area.