Greenhouse development pits homeowners against vegetable grower

Jul 7, 2020 | 4:40 PM

DUNMORE, AB – It’s a tender balance for rural municipalities when weighing supporting agriculture against increasing their tax base through county residential sub-divisions. That balancing act was on full display during Cypress County Council on Tuesday over a proposed greenhouse development.

At stake is the future of a potential 40-acre greenhouse development proposed by Ruben’s Veggies on Holsom Road. More than two dozen nearby homeowners opposed to it filed submissions which were heard during the public hearing on the matter.

“Yes, there are residences in the area, but this was originally farmland and should remain farmland,” read Ruben’s Veggies 79-page report, presented by county staff as COVID-19 precautions prevent in-person submissions. “If people chose to move to a rural area, they must understand that rural means agriculture which means farming and greenhouse farm operations.”

But opponents to the greenhouse questioned whether an operation that can be built on top of a parking lot constitutes an agricultural operation or an industrial facility.

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“The narrative of the entitled city people fighting the farmers and agricultural community needs to be put to bed and should not have been part of the discussion in the first place,” reads a statement from Craig Marshall who lives near the proposed greenhouse. “We are against this proposed land-use bylaw amendment and the development because what is proposed is not traditional agriculture by any stretch of anyone’s imagination.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, no in-person submissions were allowed with county staff reading into the record the majority of Ruben’s Veggies report as well as the two dozen homeowner letters.

Claims of the negative effects of artificial light included in just about every submission ran the gambit from impacts on sleep to connections to increased risk of cancer to diminished libido for both humans and wildlife.

Ruben’s submitted to councillors that light curtains would reduce this issue by 80 per cent while this would only occur on a limited basis.

The county’s public hearing started at 10 a.m. ran until just after 4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

A vote on the rezoning bylaw is expected later tonight.

by Alex McCuaig

Greenhouse development pits homeowners against vegetable grower

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