A Foothills winery is opening itself up to more business this summer.
County council approved requests from Spirit Hills Winery to change its hours of operation from six to seven days per week from April to October, to increase the number of mini-buses permitted to 14 per week rather than two, and to open a producer’s lounge with a patio, as well as erecting a 25-foot by 30-foot event tent on-site.
Council was not able to consider the winery’s request to increase the maximum number of vehicles from 15 to 30, as the current 15-trip maximum was created as a site-specific amendment and would require a public hearing to be changed further.
“The existing land use district only allows for eight vehicle trips, so council has already provided that component of 15 vehicles trips as part of their bylaw review,” said Heather Hemingway, County director of planning.
Spirit Hills is a honey winery, which sells its product locally and internationally, and is also open to the public during the summer for tastings, sales and events like Open Farm Days.
As part of its development permit application, the business had also requested to have restrictions on bus traffic removed. Initially, two mini-buses (occupancy between 15 and 24 people) were permitted per week and were considered part of the maximum 15 vehicle trips per day.
The request was to allow larger, coach-style buses to the site and to increase the number of bus visits per week, but the ask raised concern from the County’s public works department.
“We have concerns over the narrowness of that road and conflicts happening between traffic,” said Jeff Edgington, manager of infrastructure and engineering.
He noted the road is about seven metres wide, but in some areas it narrows to about 6.8 metres, changing the lane-width from 3.5 metres to about 3.4. Taking into account most people don’t drive right on the shoulder, the actual width is further reduced to about three metres, and standard motor coaches are about 2.6 metres wide, he said.
“It’s extremely tight,” said Edgington.
The structure of the road itself is also of concern with heavier vehicles, as it is a dirt road with a maintainable road oil (MRO) surface application. Increasing the number of high-weight vehicles could compromise that structure, he said.
Coun. R.D. McHugh said it shouldn’t make a difference whether several mini-buses or a couple of coach buses are travelling down the road per week. They’re the same width, and weight distribution shouldn’t be a concern, he said.
“The tour bus is going to have more axles and a mini-bus is generally single, so I’m not seeing where we’re having these weight restrictions,” said McHugh. “We could actually have less traffic and less damage from a tour bus than from a bunch of mini-buses.”
Coun. Delilah Miller said during the first public hearings about the business development, area residents said it was about more than just the width and weight of the buses. With Spirit Hills being located on a hilltop, there’s also a noise factor – particularly when bus drivers idle their engines while groups are on-site rather than turning them off.
“They’re up on a high hill, people who are down in the valley are going to hear this constantly throughout the summer if he’s allowed to have buses and they’re sitting outside with their engines running,” said Miller, adding she would support continuing with mini-buses only. “I’ve been on that road, it’s one-lane traffic going through certain portions of it, it’s very tight, and to me a large bus on that road would be difficult.”
Coun. Jason Parker, who represents Div. 3 where Spirit Hills is located, said allowing more mini-buses should have less impact than larger tour buses. He said adding a producer’s lounge and tent would be beneficial to business, despite some area landowners expressing concern over having too many people outside and potential issues with noise.
“Having been to the site, I would be surprised with it actually having much of an impact on people in the area,” said Parker. “They’re trying to do what they can to survive through the challenges so many people have been facing with regards to COVID. This would allow for the opportunity for social distancing when they do have the mini-buses come in.”
He said adding a patio and tent off the tasting room puts the producer’s lounge in a well-sheltered area, adding the tent could help contain noise as well.
“The tent structure would help to mitigate noise, if people were attending and with the potential for inclement weather,” said Parker.
Krista Conrad, OkotoksToday.ca
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