Here's what you need to know about sea can storage

The Town of Strathmore held an open house yesterday talking about the amendments made to the land use bylaw regarding sea can storage. Town of Strathmore's Planner III Megan Williams explained the event allowed the town to hear some feedback and also educate the town, which made it a success for them.

"It was great, we were super grateful for everyone who did come out. We met the goals for the session, we were hoping to hold a combination open house, so an education session as well as gathering feedback, and we did just that. It was awesome."

The land use bylaw amendment took place on May 18, and one of the big changes was the requirement to add vents to sea cans.

"With the new regulations for the sea cans, folks are required to put vents into their sea can, and the purpose of that is to make it safer for our first responders if they ever have to respond to that site. What the venting does is it will decrease pressure and improve airflow through the sea can, so that they don't fail catastrophically."

The setback requirement was also changed, so sea cans must now be three metres apart from another building, six metres from exits, windows and unprotected openings, and 15 metres from a parking area.

At the moment the cost of having a sea can for storage is $262.50 per sea can, but the town may be tweaking this cost later. The price change will be discussed by council in winter. A building permit is $9 per thousand dollars of construction cost.

Williams said if there are any other questions or concerns the town is happy to help you with anything you need.

"We want folks to know that they're more then welcome to come speak to us ahead of time. We live in a community where residents and businesses are actually able to get one-on-one assistance with us, with sea cans or any development on their property, and we're always happy to help folks if they want to come in and have questions."

With this open house being a success, Williams will be taking the feedback she heard to council, where potential amendments based on feedback could take place.

"What the next steps for us are, are to take the feedback and the comments that we heard during the open house back to council, just to bring them back into the loop."

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