RDCO votes against recommending proposed quarry to province

Photo: File photo

The Joe Rich community largely opposes a proposed sand and gravel quarry, leading the local regional district to vote against recommending the project to the provincial government. But the final decision on the matter rests with the province.

Thursday night, the Regional District of the Central Okanagan's board unanimously voted against recommending the proposed aggregate quarry to the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation, going against staff recommendations.

Board Chair Gail Given said they received so much feedback from residents in the community who were opposed to the project that she “lost count.”

“Most of the concerns from board members aligned with the information that we would have seen in many of the citizen's letters; so road safety, concerns for the water infrastructure in the area ... some environmental concerns,” Given told Castanet.

The project is proposed to sit on a 30-hectare lot at Highway 33 and Daves Road, just east of the hairpin turn. The applicant, Joe Rich Properties Ltd., plans to use the site for the next 40 years. They estimated they would extract 245,000 tonnes from the site annually.

Despite the local board not recommending the project, the ultimate decision on the potential quarry's future rests with the Ministry.

“[The Ministry] takes into account the feedback from the citizens, from various different stakeholder groups, and then the needs of the Ministry as well,” she said. “So it's over to them now.”

Given did not know when a final decision on the matter would be made by the Ministry.