Lumby cannabis growing facility gets green light from regional district; further approval still needed

LUMBY – A proposed marijuana production facility slated for rural Lumby has passed another hurdle in the approval process.

The Regional District of North Okanagan board of directors voted to pass the application to the Agricultural Land Commission who will make the final decision on the project, proposed for a site between Lumby and Cherryville. Directors voted 8-5 in favour of the application at their meeting yesterday, March 7.

Director for rural Lumby, Rick Fairbairn, told iNFOnews.ca he voted in favour of the application from Green Amber Canada. The marijuana production facility sits within Fairbairn's electoral area.

Fairbairn, who is a cattle farmer, said he understood the concern surrounding the project and had received hundreds of emails about the proposal.

"A lot of the immediate neighbours felt that it caught them by surprise, they felt that a building of this size shouldn't be stuck in their backyard," Fairbairn said. "We're an agricultural community, our bylaws… are very clear… it's not different than if someone wanted to put up a 100,000 square foot dairy barn or a hog barn," he said.

He also said there were a lot of people in favour of the project.

Fairbairn pointed out the original application for the marijuana production facility passed all provincial and municipal bylaws. He said the proposal and would have been approved if the provincial government hadn't changed the rules mid-2018 stipulating cannabis production facilities could not have a concrete floor. Green Amber's application is for a facility with a concrete floor.

The application has now been passed to the Agricultural Land Commission for final approval. Fairbairn said he had no idea how long it would take for the commission to make a decision.

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