The City of West Kelowna will soon be home to a cannabis production facility after it was approved by council on Tuesday (Sept. 28).

Council heard during its meeting last week that the applicant wanted to use two buildings 含羞草研究社� 1305 and 1315 Industrial Road 含羞草研究社� as a cannabis production facility, but they applied for a variance permit, hoping to change the minimum setback from a residential area from 150 metres to 31 metres.

The city含羞草研究社檚 planning manager Brent Magnan said that 31 metres may not seem like a lot but the way zoning is measured, there would still be an extra 62 metres between the cannabis facility and the residential zone across Highway 97 from it.

Besides the application to change the minimum setback, the facility meets all of its zoning requirements for a cannabis facility.

Magnan did mention that the subject property has run into issues in the past. He said the original owner of the property was supportive of a cannabis production facility at the site and had gone ahead and started renovations to accommodate such an operation.

含羞草研究社淲e do have some compliance issues at the site that have been going on for a number of years. And those are related to the property owner who previously did interior renovations to support cannabis production without the appropriate permits,含羞草研究社� he said.

含羞草研究社淪o they don含羞草研究社檛 have the building permits, they don含羞草研究社檛 have their production licenses, but they started doing the internal renovations含羞草研究社� they haven含羞草研究社檛 done anything since then, but the owner now has someone who is interested in opening a production facility on this site and that would be engaging with the city含羞草研究社檚 building department to ensure all of those internal renovations are permitted and done appropriately.含羞草研究社�

Some members of the community voiced their concerns about the location, as it would be close to residences as well as Hudson Road Elementary. There were also concerns about odour and increase in crime, all of which Magnan said bylaw services have not had problems with especially with existing facilities in other parts of the city.

Coun. Jason Friesen said he supported the proposed facility, as well as the request to minimize the setback.

含羞草研究社淭his isn含羞草研究社檛 a retail facility. The security that goes around this is actually pretty intense. We含羞草研究社檙e not hearing complaints about odour, we含羞草研究社檙e not hearing complaints about crime in the area (of existing facilities),含羞草研究社� he said.

含羞草研究社淪o given all those items, I含羞草研究社檓 happy to support this today.含羞草研究社�

Coun. Doug Findlater, however, was in opposition.

含羞草研究社淎 lot of time and effort and investigation went into creating the bylaws related to cannabis, cannabis production, sales and so on,含羞草研究社� he said.

含羞草研究社淭hose bylaws have been in place for a little while and perhaps it含羞草研究社檚 time to update them to look at whether they are relevant in today含羞草研究社檚 context as things have evolved含羞草研究社� but I don含羞草研究社檛 think we should be varying this on a one-off basis.含羞草研究社�

Findlater said he would rather that production facilities like this follow all one bylaw instead of being approved on a one-on-one basis like this through permitting.

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