The Rural Municipality of Weyburn is looking into a way to make it easier for a company to provide housing for their employees on their property, by making residential buildings a discretionary use on land zoned for industrial use.
The Rural Municipality of Weyburn is looking into a way to make it easier for a company to provide housing for their employees on their property, by making residential buildings a discretionary use on land zoned for industrial use.
Planning consultant Tim Cheeseman spoke with the RM council about the zoning changes at their Sept. 14 council meeting.
Reeve Carmen Sterling said at the current time, there are two companies that tell the RM their employees cannot find anything affordable to rent in Weyburn, so they allow the employees to bring their trailers to park on company land to stay.
"It's a convenience to them, and it's kind of important they can offer this to them," said Reeve Sterling.
For the RM's part, they want to know which employees are staying on company land, "in case of an emergency, so we know who's in there and how many there are," she said.
The RM will make this provision as discretionary, meaning it needs council approval before it's allowed, said the reeve, explaining, "That's how we would prefer to keep it. Some businesses may not be a good fit for us. This gives us a way to control it. Each company can come in and explain their case."
In the meantime, the RM will advise the Weyburn and District Planning Commission the RM will be putting this in as a discretionary use in an industrial zone.
"Ideally it would be great if they could buy a house in Weyburn, but other companies have said there is a shortage of affordable housing in the city," said Reeve Sterling.
A delegation of North Weyburn residents visited the RM council to share their concerns about turning the North Weyburn road back into gravel.
The RM explained the pavement was failing, and to replace all of it is a very expensive project, estimated at around $1.4 million for the 3.2 km stretch north from Highway 13 to the hamlet. This is very nearly the entire tax levy raised by the RM from taxes, said the reeve, just for this one road, while the RM has to take care and maintain close to 300 miles of road in their borders.
"I think for the most part they understood," said Sterling, adding that the RM is putting money to do the project at a future time. Meantime, the RM is continuing to look for possible grant funding to help with the project cost, such as the fact the road serves as the access road for Weyburn's municipal airport.
