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 sa国际传媒� 1305 and 1315 Industrial Road sa国际传媒� 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 citysa国际传媒檚 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.

sa国际传媒淲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,sa国际传媒� he said.

sa国际传媒淪o they donsa国际传媒檛 have the building permits, they donsa国际传媒檛 have their production licenses, but they started doing the internal renovationssa国际传媒� they havensa国际传媒檛 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 citysa国际传媒檚 building department to ensure all of those internal renovations are permitted and done appropriately.sa国际传媒�

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.

sa国际传媒淭his isnsa国际传媒檛 a retail facility. The security that goes around this is actually pretty intense. Wesa国际传媒檙e not hearing complaints about odour, wesa国际传媒檙e not hearing complaints about crime in the area (of existing facilities),sa国际传媒� he said.

sa国际传媒淪o given all those items, Isa国际传媒檓 happy to support this today.sa国际传媒�

Coun. Doug Findlater, however, was in opposition.

sa国际传媒淎 lot of time and effort and investigation went into creating the bylaws related to cannabis, cannabis production, sales and so on,sa国际传媒� he said.

sa国际传媒淭hose bylaws have been in place for a little while and perhaps itsa国际传媒檚 time to update them to look at whether they are relevant in todaysa国际传媒檚 context as things have evolvedsa国际传媒� but I donsa国际传媒檛 think we should be varying this on a one-off basis.sa国际传媒�

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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