Kelowna Urban Farm Proposal Heads to Public Hearing

A new urban farm in Kelowna is one step closer to opening after speaking with City of Kelowna council on January 12^th.

Despite the staff recommendation to not go ahead with a rezoning application and text amendment application, five city councillors did vote in favour of the resolution, which now means the plans will go to public hearing.

The farm owned by the Linttell family is located on KLO Road. The family is asking for the farm to now include an agri-tourism section, which is a proposed 10 site RV park. Staff do not see the rational for allowing a secondary-use of agri-tourist accommodation because not enough farming is happening on the land currently.

“The subject parcel does not have an established agricultural operation that warrants agri-tourism,” the report stated.

In current zone permits a maximum of five units is allowed on a farm their size, but the Linttell family has asked for 10, saying five will just not be enough to turn a profit.

Tyler Linttell spoke to councillors during the regular meeting of council about the proposal and the 14.24 acres of farmland the family owns. The farm currently has about 7.7 acres of hay production, a single family home, a two storey structure, a tennis court, and another barn.

The family doesn’t want to stop there though and are hoping to include a partnership with another local farmer to create a vegetable garden and a berry production. The vegetable garden would be a seven acres parcel ready for the 2016 season. The first crop could be a mix of corn, winter squash, and broccoli.

There are also proposed meat birds, chickens for eggs, and bees to be included, as well as the RV lots at the back of the farm.

Councillor Ryan Donn voted to pass this resolution.

“Agriculture is currently in place but I think what is being proposed is a higher intensity of agriculture. I feel that if we move this motion forward we empower this generation of farmers, which is essentiality what we want to do.”

Councillor Luke Stack did not support the application because he said he was on council when the rezoning bylaw was put into place. Stack said the policy still remains in effect and because of that he would not be supporting the rezoning application.

“I won’t be supporting this going forward this afternoon. I do like the agriculture plan that the Lintells have brought forward. I think it’s great and I think the application of intensifying the farm is fantastic, I think the chickens, the meat birds and that is great, and I wish them all kinds of success with it.”

Mayor Colin Basran also said he would not support the urban farm. Basran said if they were asking for the five RV slots he would have agreed, but 10 is just too many.

“I would absolutely support five of them but I don’t know if I could support ten of them. It pains me because the family is a great family. I want to believe it but it’s based on a dream and I don’t know if I could go against all the work that was done all those years ago,” Basran said speaking about the rezoning bylaw.

After about a two hour discussion the application was put to the table for a vote. Mayor Basran, Councillor Stack, Councillor Gail Given, and Councillor Tracy Gray all voted against the resolution, but with the five other councillors voting in favour the resolution was passed.

The proposed urban farm plans will now go to a public hearing for members of the public to come and learn more about the property. The hearing will be held in the council chambers on February 16th at 6:00 p.m.