On August 16, Ritchot’s council denied applications for two conditional use permit requests. Both were for alternative uses in areas designated agricultural limited and each were objected to by a unanimous council.
Aggregate Mining for Highway Reconstruction
The first application came from Nelson River Construction regarding a section of land owned by Bau-Four Developments Ltd near Ste. Agathe.
Nelson River, contracted by the province for roadwork along Highway 75, hoped to extract clay materials from the property for use in the reconstruction of 13 kilometres of highway shoulder embankments between Ste. Agathe and Highway 205.
President of Nelson River Construction, Gord Lee, approached council to appeal for the request and answer questions as they arose.
The extraction of materials, he said, would be for a brief period of time, beginning this fall and running to the spring of 2024, after which time the property would be regraded and sold.
The company would ensure that a 60-foot buffer remained between the excavation area and the nearest neighbouring property.
Approximately 80,000 cubic meters of ground aggregate would be extracted from this property, but the quantity could vary by up to 20 percent, Lee told council. Moving this amount of dirt in the scheduled timeframe would require between 100 to 200 semitrailers per day.
According to Lee, his company has done similar aggregate mining for a variety of projects across the province.
“We’ve created a lot of lakes as a result of these excavations,” said Lee. “At the end of the day, what we give you… is a beautiful body of water. They turn into RV sites with sort of a manmade lake you can park a camper around. In the communities that we’ve worked in, we’ve never seen the creation of a waterhole that seemed negative.”
Lee added that the pond would be graded to Manitoba standards, would not compromise the bank of the nearby Red River, and could prove useful to surrounding landowners for irrigation purposes.
“I profoundly disagree that this lot will be in better shape when you leave than when you got there,” Councillor Shane Pelletier told Lee. “We’re rendering the lot pretty much useless for any other activity in the future… It’s supposed to be returned to ag land once you’re done mining it. Now, there’s no way that can happen without filling the hole up.”
Mayor Chris Ewen echoed Councillor Pelletier’s thoughts and reiterated council’s mandate to attempt to preserve, wherever possible, municipal agricultural lands.
“If we could get the material from the right-of-way off the highway, we wouldn’t be having this conversation,” Lee responded. “But unfortunately our provincial highways department hasn’t made that available to us, and we have asked.”
Two neighbouring residents approached council to speak against the proposal, one a direct neighbour to the south. Earlier that week he’d submitted a multipage report to council to support his objection.
“This is not a pond, it’s a lake,” he told council. “A pond is an acre. This is five acres, 16 feet deep… I can’t see how it’s any benefit to the RM to have a standing body of water.”
His primary concerns, he said, were the noise disruptions caused by upwards of 200 trucks per day along with inevitable pest issues and safety risks posed by a significant body of water so near to his property line.
Councillor Janine Boulanger suggested the addition of conditions which would limit the hours of operation to working hours from Monday to Friday.
“It’s a great opportunity, for sure,” Ewen concluded. “We need the economic growth and we need that highway to be fixed, 100 percent. But I think there’s other opportunities in other places.”
Ewen offered to write a letter to the province on Nelson River’s behalf, encouraging them to reconsider the use of materials excavated from highway rights-of-way.
Home-Based Business for Vision Board Workshops
Ritchot resident Pauline Grouette also approached council at Wednesday’s meeting. She requested a permit to run a home-based business from her property on Marchand Road.
The request included the construction of a building separate from her home where vision board workshops could be hosted. As a vision board facilitator and coach, she told council, her workshops have been held offsite or online until now.
Given the nature of her general clientele, Grouette believed that a safe, rural locale would be beneficial for clients dealing with mental health issues.
“There is no one in Manitoba who offers vision board workshops like this,” she said. “Traffic would be very limited [to my facility]. I would hold two workshops per month… and five to ten people at most… because it’s about wellness and getting back to nature.”
One neighbouring resident approached council demonstrating vehement objection to the proposition. The access driveway between Grouette and herself is shared, she told council, with the main access lying on her own property.
Traffic and driveway maintenance were among her main concerns. She also reminded council that the land in question is zoned ag limited, where commercial uses have no place.
“The shared access is not for commercial purposes,” she said. “It’s a private contract between two individuals. It’s for private use only and cannot be turned into a public road and that’s what she’s attempting to do.”
This neighbour worried, too, that if workshop attendees were allowed to roam Grouette’s property, it may put her own children at risk.
Councillor Boulanger agreed. “I’d be concerned about the safety of the neighbouring people,” Boulanger remarked. “If this is a vision board for wellness, it sounds like mental health… I can’t imagine having anybody scarier on my property or the property beside me than somebody that’s not well mentally.”
As well, she added, Marchand Road is already compromised and adding to the traffic wouldn’t be a good idea. Grouette’s request was declined.
