| The Ramsay Community Association is fighting a new application by Lilydale Inc. to expand its chicken slaughterhouse operation in the area.
Lilydale has applied to the city for a change in zoning so that it can construct a new building on its site just off 11th Street S.E. Rob Willmott, senior director of sales for Lilydale, says the new building would be used for parking for trucks full of chickens. Currently the trucks just park in the slaughterhouse yard until the chickens can be processed.
But Vince Bodnar, president of the Ramsay Community Association, says many residents are unhappy with the existing facility and they’d like to see it leave the area, not expand.
"Fifty years ago when they moved in and they were on the outskirts of the city it was fine, but our community has certainly changed… and for a slaughterhouse to continue to operate in a residential community is no longer appropriate," he says.
Bodnar says residents have long been annoyed about the number of trucks driving through their residential neighbourhood as well as parking issues. He says Lilydale doesn’t provide sufficient staff parking, which forces employees to park elsewhere in the neighbourhood. In addition to that, large exhaust fans create noise 24 hours a day, and residents say they have found "feathers and animal parts" in the neighbourhood. But the biggest concern, he says, is the stench from the facility.
"There’s exhaust fans on the outside of the facility and depending on the wind direction… it can be quite overwhelming and quite overpowering, so I would say smell pollution is probably the biggest, strongest issue for folks in the community," says Bodnar.
He says the community association is concerned that if rezoning is approved, Lilydale will be allowed to expand its slaughterhouse facility as well as adding another building.
The site is currently zoned I-2, which is light industrial and usually includes offices or retail, but in order to make any changes the company needs to get it rezoned to DC (direct control), which allows for an additional specific use. Josh Hagen, a city planner, explains that the Lilydale slaughterhouse received I-2 zoning in the 1950s when it was first opened – slaughterhouses are now required to have I-3 zoning, but Lilydale got an exemption because they existed prior to the change.
"They’ve been grandfathered in, so technically they can stay there as long as they want…. They just can’t do anything with their building," says Hagen.
Hagen says if Lilydale successfully won their rezoning bid, "it would allow them to expand their facilities internally and externally."
Hagen says he’s already received dozens of e-mails and phone calls opposing Lilydale’s application.
"That is a significant amount at this stage in the process," he says.
Willmott says the company is not seeking a zoning change in order to expand the slaughterhouse. He says the new building would not increase traffic and could actually reduce odour because the trucks carrying chickens would be immediately driven inside a building.
"It’s a zoning change to allow us to put up a building to better protect the poultry as it’s brought to the plant. It’s not an expansion of the operation…. Everything would be handled as it is now, just a different place to leave the trucks while we’re waiting."
Willmott says Lilydale has no plans to leave the area, but expansion is not on the table.
"I don’t know of any plans to expand that facility…. It’s pretty well at its capacity. There’s not a lot of space left," he says of the site.
Bodnar says now would be a good time for Lilydale to consider relocation rather than upgrading existing facilities. He points out that the Ramsay area used to be home to a meat packing plant and a stockyard, but they’ve since moved. He questions why Lilydale can’t do the same.
"I think that the members of the community wouldn’t be disappointed to see Lilydale go. I think they’ve outgrown their current facility. They’ve outgrown that site. I think it’s pretty clear for both Lilydale and for the members in the community it might be time for them to go to a better location…. We’re not against them as a business, but the location just seems to be a real challenge in the impact it has on our community," says Bodnar.
The application still has to go to the Calgary Planning Commission for review, and after that council would have to approve it. |
Copyright ©2005 FFWD. All rights reserved.