La Broquerie extends olive branch to Enns

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This article was published 20/09/2017 (2402 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The RM of La Broquerie council has passed a resolution to enter into a development agreement with Garnet Enns, a Sunrise Lane landowner whose construction of a banquet rental facility attracted criticism from neighbours and a ruling from the Manitoba Municipal Board this past spring.

Council passed the resolution last week which will grant Enns a certificate of non-conforming use, in exchange for adherence to land use conditions determined by council.

Reeve Lewis Weiss and CAO Anne Burns were authorized to execute the document once Enns reviewed the conditions, proposed any desired amendments, and signed.

The decision followed an in-camera delegation from municipal lawyer Orvel Currie earlier that morning. Currie represented the RM of La Broquerie during a lengthy municipal board hearing in May that saw neighbours, the Province of Manitoba, and the City of Steinbach outline their objections to Enns’s plan for his property.

While the municipal board, in its decision later that month, refused to allow Enns’s property to be rezoned to RCI (rural commercial industrial), it left a decision on the matter of non-conforming rights to council, citing jurisdictional concerns.

A subsection of the provincial Planning Act, which addresses non-conforming uses, states a parcel of land’s use shall not be affected by any zoning bylaw enacted after the lawful use of the land was already established.

This week, Weiss framed council’s decision as the best way for the municipality to have some say in how the property is used while honouring the fact that the property’s commercial use predated the municipality’s current development plan and zoning bylaw.

“That property has been operated as a commercial business for many, many years before we ever had any bylaws restricting it,” Weiss said, explaining the new banquet hall Enns constructed did not change the existing use of the property, which also has an older rentable structure on its grounds.

“But if we can get into a development agreement we would have some kind of control,” he explained.

Weiss surmised both the municipality and Enns have learned a lesson to consult a municipal lawyer early on in these type of situations, to save time and avoid misunderstandings.

“I think we all understand now more what those rules mean, and I think that’ll help for the future,” he said.

Reacting to council’s decision, Romanda Martens, a neighbour of Enns’s who objected at the municipal board public hearing, said she was shocked.

“We haven’t had any notification,” she said, and was skeptical the conditions imposed would be enough to address her concerns.

“I didn’t expect something further would happen,” she said.

While Burns said the precise conditions included in the agreement cannot be made public until it is signed, she said they are intended to address hours of operation, maximum capacity, parking, security, and other neighbour concerns.

“With any kind of use of land, you want to make sure that there are certain expectations from the person,” said Burns. “We’ve clearly identified these are our expectations for this use. That was the reason we went into a development agreement.”

Burns said the decision was a formality intended to help future La Broquerie administrators and councils to clarify land uses in tricky situations by providing a written precedent.

The conditions will apply to any future owner of the property as long as the use remains the same, Burns said, and Weiss assured nearby landowners the municipality will retain the ability to enforce the conditions agreed upon.