A large proposed RV storage facility can go ahead after security concerns were addressed.
The 750-unit storage facility will go 14.75 acres just outside the city’s southeast boundary near Township Road 272 south of Hwy 595.
The applicant, Calgary’s Planning Protocol 2 Inc., had asked that a county requirement be waived that a dwelling must be located at the RV property.
However, some councillors expressed concerns about the security of the RV lot, which would not have been attended outside normal business hours.
The storage yard is to be protected by 24-hour video surveillance with motion-sensing cameras with night-vision capability.
Rod Potrie, of Protocol 2 Inc., said the RV lot owner was planning to place a park model mobile home on the site that could serve as an office and residence. If the county required, the applicant would accept having a full-time resident on site, he said.
Several councillors said they wanted to see a round-the-clock presence in the storage yard and the vote to allow that to be waived was defeated.
Mayor Jim Wood said crime concerns were the biggest reason that county development rules require an on-site residence in RV storage areas.
The county sees RV storage yards as a “temporary-type development” that can be used by local landowners to generate extra income.
“At one point, when do we creep the line and actually turn it into a commercial property?”
Coun. Philip Massier’s concern was that good agricultural land would be taken out of production by the proposal.
Massier said while the site will certainly be annexed by the city eventually, the county does not have to change its use yet.
“I think it’s important to preserve agricultural land,” said Massier.
The vote to conditionally approve the RV storage site with the requirement that a residence on site be occupied was passed 6-1, with Massier opposed.