A heated debate between Town of Sundre councillors and residents from Valley Mobile Home Park occurred during the council meeting on July 2.
The debate was regarding the replacement of mobile homes in the park, after town officials informed the owners in March that it was no longer permissible.
The final decision made by council was to recommend the owners of the east side park, Blair and Gloria Jensen, to apply for an amendment to the town's land use bylaw. The amendment would allow the replacement of mobile homes in the park at a cost of $1,500 only.
“In March 2013, the Town of Sundre received a call from an individual within the mobile home park inquiring about the process to replace their existing trailer within the park,” said Erin O'Neill, in a report to council.
“Administration explained that this area is a non-conforming use. The trailer cannot be replaced as under the Municipal Government Act, non-conforming uses cannot be enlarged, added to, rebuilt, or structurally alerted,” she explained.
The owners requested that any fees for the application be waived, but councillors disagreed.
Dean Pickering, the town's chief administrative officer, said the town has already spent $3,591.92 in legal fees to review the Municipal Government Act and files relating to the property.
Coun. Chris Vardas said at the meeting that he believes if the owner wants to make a change to the bylaw then it should be at his or her cost and not at the town's peoples cost.
Laura Skorodenski, friend of the Jensens and articling student with Kutz Olson law, was present at the meeting and said several people rely on the park.
Coun. Cheri Funke said that Vardas' comment wasn't fair because when Riverside RV Park owners applied to amend the land use bylaw, they received a discount to the amendment fee of half price.
Vardas said the difference is that Valley Mobile Home Park involves permanent homes, whereas Riverside RV Park involves holiday homes.
Also during the meeting, Vardas expressed concerns that there wasn't enough space to replace old trailers with new trailers at the park.
“There is only actually 11 lots in that area and there is 28 trailers,” said Pickering. “If they replace on old, smaller trailer because of flood or fire, even just removing it, they won't meet any of the setbacks because all of the new trailers are much bigger today than the old ones.”
“And you can't just move an old trailer into a spot where an old trailer was because there are certain provincial code standards to trailers and our bylaw says the trailer can only be 10 years old,” he added.
Skorodenski said there is space, but Coun. Paul Isaac and mayor Annette Clews disagreed.
Isaac believes the park should be moved from a commercial area to a residential area. A resident of the park that was present at the meeting said why not just change the zoning of the park to residential. Isaac said it is possible but eventually the park would be surrounded by industrial area. The resident said that doesn't matter to him and Vardas said that personally, he wouldn't want to raise his children in an industrial area. Coun. Myron Thompson said he would like to see the park stay where it is.
Clews said she sees both Funke and Vardas' sides and personally will not agree to charging the owner of the park less than 50 per cent of the application fee.
Coun. Pat Toone made the motion to recommend the owners to apply to amend the bylaw at a charge of $1,500 only and Clews and Vardas opposed the motion.
Coun. Tony Jordan was absent from the meeting. However, at the governance meeting on June 10, he said he agreed with the residents that mobile homes should be replaceable.
About 20 residents from the park were present at the meeting last week.
“We are happy with the decision,” said Skorodenski, last week, adding that the next step is to put in an application for a bylaw amendment.
“We're happy with the decision because it lets us know that the council is willing to consider a bylaw amendment that would allow the park to continue,” she said.
“The park is also willing to, and has to, abide by any safety code regulations,” she said, when referring to councillors' concerns with spacing between trailers at the park.
“We were pleased that the town is willing to have a conversation about this and that they seem willing to consider the position of the park and to work with us,” she said.
“Hopefully we can come to some kind of a neutrally agreeable resolution for the matter.”
The issue was initially brought to council's attention when close to 30 unhappy residents from the park attended the governance meeting on June 10.
Skorodenski, along with about 10 others, spoke to council at that time. She said she believes replacing mobile homes in the park is essential to keeping the park alive.
The original owners of the park applied for a permit in the 1960s and Pickering said the definition of a trailer has changed since then.
Skorodenski said since the Jensen's purchased the park in 2004, two development permits have been applied for to replace homes in the park.
“The Town of Sundre Municipal Planning Commission has decided that when a mobile home is replaced in the trailer court, the home shall be required as a condition of the development permit to be anchored using engineer approved tie-downs and anchors and for the owner of the mobile be advised that they are situated in a flood plain area and that they should govern themselves accordingly,” said O'Neill, in the report to council.
Town officials looked to Brownlee Law for advice on the issue.
“As mobile homes and mobile home parks are neither permitted nor discretionary uses within the l-2 district, the town's approving authority cannot approve a development permit for the placement of a mobile home on the lands,” reads a report from Brownlee Law.
“In addition, the replacement of mobile homes on the lands is arguable contrary to the intent of current planning legislating given that the legal non-conforming use of the lands is not intended to continue indefinitely,” it also states.
However, it says that the town can amend its land use bylaw to reflect the direction of council.
“While development permits have been issued in the past for mobile homes, this was outside the jurisdiction of the development authority and should not have been issued,” said O'Neill, in the report.
The report also says that Superior Safety Codes, the town's contracted agency, said it would not allow replacement homes at this time.
Also, the town's fire chief said the Sundre Fire Department's firefighters are not able to respond to a call within 10 minutes, 90 per cent of the time, Pickering said at the meeting.
“Administration will not support a land use bylaw amendment as our current Municipal Development Plan (2001) and our growth strategy (2010) designates this area as industrial and our draft Municipal Development Plan designates this area as commercial/mixed use,” said O'Neill, in the report, adding that the decision would be of council.
