No more RV parks on Kelowna’s agricultural land

Kelowna farmers looking to make some extra cash by operating RV parks on their farmland will now have to look elsewhere.

Council decided Aug. 7 to eliminate a special “agri-tourism accommodation” bylaw that allowed owners of A1 agricultural land to operate temporary accommodations on their farmland.

The decision came after the city’s urban planning manager, Ryan Smith, told council that most of the developments that had been approved were either non-compliant or currently in court.

Right now, Smith said, there are 13 developments approved under the agri-tourism developments bylaw. Of those, five are currently in court and four have outstanding non-compliance issues.

Only four are totally compliant.

Smith said enforcing the bylaw has become “quite expensive” for the city, draining a lot of staff time and resources.

The agri-tourism accommodation bylaw was originally created to give farmers access to extra income. It allowed them to set up temporary accommodations on their farms if they provided some kind of tourism benefit, like allowing guests to tour the premises and learn more about the region’s agriculture.

The rules forbade stays over 30 days, permanent structures and year-around occupancy.

At the Aug. 7 council meeting, Mayor Colin Basran said those rules “are pretty clearly not being followed.”

He pointed out that most operators are simply running RV parks on designated agricultural, and not providing any tourism benefit or agricultural education.

He said the law was a “failed experiment that’s taking up way too much staff time.”

Coun. Gail Given lamented that the bylaw was created with the best intentions, but that it just wasn't’ working out.

“We tried to give it our best shot, but if staff are having to chase on policy violations it should be 2 per cent, not 9 out of 13 [operators],” she said.

Coun. Mohini Singh stressed that council still cares about Kelowna’s agricultural community, but that this specific program was just a failure.

Coun. Charlie Hodge was the lone dissenter to the ban, casting his vote against it at the council meeting.

He warned his colleagues that ending the program was a one-way street.

“Once you close those doors on something … it’s much harder to get your foot back in,” he said.

The ban will apply from the time it is officially adopted by council, which means existing developments will be allowed to continue, so long as they remain compliant.

Smith stressed that bed and breakfasts on A1 land will not be affected by the ban.