Council supports, Staff did not!

By Martha WickettMARKET NEWS Staff Nov 17 2006 http://www.saobserver.net/
Development: Owners want Official Community Plan changed. Dissatisfaction with decisions of the Agricultural Land Commission from people wishing to withdraw their property from the Agricultural Land Reserve is nothing new. In this case, however, the applicant hopes the city's planning department will rethink its stance. Jim Grieve applied on his own behalf and that of three other property owners to exclude from the ALR 6.7 hectares directly to the east and south of Hillcrest Elementary School. The properties are located at 2310 10th Ave. SE and 1400 20th St. SE. The land commission turned down the request.
The majority of city council had voted to forward the application to the commission, but city staff did not support the application. In the commission's written decision, which denied the request to exclude the property from the ALR, it stated, under Assessment of Community Need, that "the City of Salmon Arm did not support the application on the grounds that it was not compatible with its OCP (Official Community Plan) policies." Corey Paiement, the city's director of development services, subsequently wrote to the commission, pointing out that council did authorize the application to proceed and that "council makes the final decision for the City of Salmon Arm."
In its report to council, the planning department noted that the proposed exclusion from the ALR and subsequent rezoning and subdivision are contrary to four policies of the official community plan. The policies refer to such issues as keeping development within the plan's Urban Containment Boundary until designated residential development areas are full, and not extending municipal utilities to agricultural reserve areas. The report also refers to three other properties east of the proposal that were either denied by council or turned down by the land commission between 1998 and 2003. However, the planning department report concluded: "...the Development Services Department does support a further review of the proposal and others in close at the periphery of the Urban Containment Boundary in conjunction with the next comprehensive review and update of the official community plan. That review may happen within the next five years.