Gravel debate a rocky one for Kelowna City Council

KELOWNA — A debate about gravel split Kelowna City Council in two this week.  

At issue is an East Kelowna property owner’s application to start hauling gravel off his property, which is in the Agricultural Land Reserve.

“Well it was interesting,” says Kelowna City Councillor Luke Stack. “We talked for 90 minutes. Council has a lot of interest and there was a lot of interest from the community.  The gallery was full of people, which is pretty unusual for a Monday afternoon meeting.”

That interest is coming from neighbours, who are opposed to the plan. They worry about environmental impacts, noise, dust, and gravel trucks driving up and down neighbourhood roads.

“In this case my personal opinion is the impact of gravel extraction from that particular location would have a terrible impact on the neighbourhood,” says Mohini Singh, who voted against supporting the application.

Four others council members voted to support it.

“I actually felt it’s going to advance the farmland in the area and I felt better personally putting conditions around the removal of gravel,” says Stack.

When a city council vote ends in a tie the motion is defeated. That has neighbours breathing a sigh of relief, for now.

“We’re regrouping now. It was a bit of a nail-biter sitting in the bleachers at city council. We weren’t sure which way it was going to go,” says Chris Abougoush.

The application is still valid. It now goes to the agricultural land commission to debate the “non-farm” use of the property. If it passes it will go to the Ministry of Energy and Mines for final approval.

At no time in the process so far was a public hearing held, and neighbours were not asked for input in any way.

That lack of public process is frustrating for neighbours – and has some city councilors shaking their heads.

“So really there was no process, no way in this entire process, that the community could be heard and that’s wrong,” says Singh.

If the Agricultural Land Commission supports the application, the Ministry of Mines could still invite public input but it’s not required to.