Strathmore's Town Council proposed the implementation of Bylaw No. 22-01 to make several amendments to Land Use Bylaw 14- 11. Which deals with the regulations around the use and implantation of business and property around the town of Strathmore. 

These changes that were made by the council were made to, “To clarify regulations, improve safety around sea cans, align the regulations with Provincial and Federal law, and reduce red tape.“

Most of these changes deal with removing unnecessary paperwork for the council and Strathmore residents and allowing certain districts access to developments that weren't allowed before and adding and removing certain rules for these developments themselves 

During the town council meeting on May 18th, several amendments were proposed that will be implemented when this bylaw is enforced. For example, Subsection 3.35 Sea Cans added these regulations:

  •  A Sea Can used for storage shall only be located on a parcel where there is an existing principal use.  
  • The Approving Authority may require that a Sea Can be clad, painted, or covered to ensure that its appearance is compatible with the surrounding area.

 “Principal use” simply put deals with what the land the sea can is sitting on is doing. So if you are farming on the land the sea can is sitting on and using it for farm storage, that would meet requirements, simply ensure that it looks appealing. 

As well the council proposed that sea cans be kept away from residential buildings in the areas of Canal Gardens, Orchard Park, Spruce Park and Burns Park due to safety concerns following a BC Fire Chief’s position paper that noted that a sea can that exploded had parts land 274 metres away.

With this implementation, they hope that emergency crews will be able to focus on dealing with the sea can itself in an emergency and not evacuating the homes adjacent.

These new changes have been met with some concern as Kyle Wilson co-founder of Beyond the leaf cannabis located in downtown Strathmore illustrated when he addressed the town council on May 18th 

" I'm hoping for the towns consideration to add some safeguards to help protect the existing ecosystem of the current cannabis retailers in addition to also limit the exposure to our town's youth. In section 3.35,  I propose to increase the distance an additional 25 to 150 meters or more. In addition, I would like to propose the adding in subsection 1B by two additional points to add a distance for public libraries, parks and playgrounds. And most importantly, other cannabis stores. As a retailer here in town, the biggest fear that I have is that there's going to be too much competition and we're going to fail. I'm a believer in Murphy's law as well, where anything can go wrong, it will and with the fact that there's not a distance between public stores, there is a shop that can technically open up right next door to me and have the predatory pricing approach to shut us down."

To check and see if these amendments apply to your property or business visit Strathmore's website 
 

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