Angelstone Farms is facing another year with temporary rezoning while the permanent rezoning option remains out of reach.
Wellington County planner Gary Cousins recommended to Erin council at the May 5 meeting that, “Another one-year temporary zone amendment would be appropriate to allow the equine events, including the sale of related merchandise and food and beverages and for temporary camping for stable hands and grooms that are essentially needed for the security of the horses on the site.”
At the May 19 meeting council granted the temporary rezoning bylaw amendment and said an evaluation of the 2015 season will be completed in the fall and the permanent rezoning permit will be revisited – a permit Cousins was opposed to at the present time.
“They still have not demonstrated the extent of compatibility with the neighbours that I think would be appropriate for the use,” Cousins said. “I think they have a little bit more improving to do.”
It’s the work identified in other studies he recommended Angelstone focus on.
“The work on the county road or the entrance, the drainage work that needs to be done, moving to the online notification system and eliminating the PA system in the stabling areas,” Cousins said.
Angelstone is an equine facility located on Wellington Road 50, northeast of the Eramosa-Erin Townline, that will host seven events this year, up from the six tournaments in 2014. Also, to coincide and take advantage of the Pan American Games, Angelstone is having all seven tournaments (35 days of competition) in a two-month period rather than its regular four-month period.
“I think that really has a potential to trouble neighbours to some degree,” Cousins said. “Angelstone’s view is that this might be only a one-year thing because of the Pan Am Games and wanting to organize their events because of the attraction of the Pan Am Games, but I still think it will be felt by the neighbours.”
At a public meeting held on March 17, town residents voiced concern that the Angelstone land is designated as prime agricultural but the business is commercial.
At the beginning of his May 5 presentation, Cousins assured council that Angelstone is a viable farming operation.
“There’s a policy that does allow both equine and equine events, subject to all the other planning controls that are in place in the province,” he said.
Cousins said he thinks neighbour relations is the main hurdle for Angelstone.
“The major issue with Angelstone … as I see it is very straight forward, it has to do with land use compatibility,” he explained. “That is the issue in my mind and I guess there’s a fundamental expectation that when a new use establishes in the community it has to demonstrate that it’s compatible with its neighbours.”
Though Angelstone has made improvements to the operation since 2013 when the complaints began, Cousins said the farm still has some work to do and they still need to earn the neighbours’ trust.
Cousins recommended that Angelstone and the neighbours work with the town solicitor to develop permanent conditions under the town’s major events bylaw for the nuisance type issues that are of concern.
“Hours of operation, liquor licensing, events really aren’t appropriate things for zoning bylaws as well as dealing with an amplified sound level, those aren’t really zoning issues either, but they are issues that we can deal with under your event bylaw,” he explained.
At the May 19 meeting, Angelstone representative John Cox and president Keean White both said Angelstone is happy to work with the solicitor in this way.
“We’re anticipating that’s how some of this is going to be accomplished,” Cox said. “And we’re also looking forward to having that draft that’s being proposed by the solicitor …”
Cousins’ last recommendation was that the town review the 2015 season with Angelstone and the neighbours as soon as the season is complete, “To determine future needs and develop some guidance related to the number and timing of future events to assist Angelstone in scheduling future seasons.”
Councillor Matt Sammut questioned how the subjective issues, like noise complaints, would be addressed if there are no measurement criteria.
“You’re going to see maybe improvement, maybe not to neighbours that subjectively look at it and even one of the noise reports clearly showed that it wasn’t an issue but to the neighbours it’s a big issue,” he said.
“Have you thought through other things we can do … something so we can, at the end of the season, say okay you know you really did what you had to do.
“I think it’s really important that we have … objective tools because we don’t want this year to year to year.”
Cousins said there isn’t a lot more to be done to measure the noise levels.
“(The consultants) were also fairly clear in the report that this type of operation, this type of event isn’t the typical thing you’d measure with those noise studies,” he explained.
“The nature of Angelstone is the persistence of the noise over time and as probably many people know the way noise carries, especially at night, and it can be disturbing and the noise consultant was very clear about that.”
Cousins suggested the town collect deposit money from Angelstone to hire bylaw enforcement officers or off duty police officers to monitor the site. White said he was willing to cover the cost.
“We’re happy to pay them to be on site during the events to monitor and report back,” White said. “We’d rather it be someone that maybe the council appoints if that’s possible so it’s an independent person.”
In order to address some of the noise concerns, White said the tournament is moving some of the stable announcements to an online format.
In past years the stabling area that is closest to the neighbours who are most impacted had six speakers supplying live updates on the classes in the show ring to those in the stabling area from about 7am to 5pm.
The volume had to be quite loud to reach all six acres of the area, he explained. Now, White said the tournament has moved to an online service where every rider and their team will be able to download an app to their smart phone and receive instantaneous updates from the show ring.
“We’re also implementing, in the stabling area, four big screens right in the middle so if somebody doesn’t have the app on their phone they can go up and look at it,” White said. “That eliminates about 90% of the noise on the property.”
Councillor Jeff Duncan asked how much capital investment White had put into the property.
“I’ve invested in the property so far, including the zoning improvements, $2.47 million since I bought it,” White replied.
Councillor Rob Smith said he thinks that this will be the year that either makes or breaks the farm.
“I’m thinking that this year, with the expanded amount of events, it’s either going to be good or bad,” he said. “It’s just going to be a tell tale year for you I think with the number of events that you have.”
White again reiterated that the shortened season is only due to the Pan Am Games and a need to pick up the slack from the Caledon Pan Am Equestrian Park in Palgrave, another show facility that is hosting Pan Am equestrian events and is out of commission for much of the summer.
“This one year the only other competition place at the ‘A’ circuit level is Angelstone so there’s a high demand for competitors both coming for the Pan Am Games but also our local competitors who compete every year,” he said.
Mayor Allan Alls and councillor John Brennan were happy with Cousins’ report.
“I believe that what you’ve recommended here is an excellent way for us to take the next steps and hopefully to get at the situation that’s going to be acceptable to all parties,” Brennan said.
Council approved the temporary use bylaw amendment on May 19 “To allow equine events including the sale of related merchandise, food and beverages for temporary camping for stable hands and grooms.”
The resolution also stated the conditions set by Cousins need to be met and the town solicitor will work with Angelstone and the neighbours to develop conditions for permits under the major events bylaw.
The town will review the 2015 season with Angelstone and the neighbors to determine whether improvements are need for the future.
“And Mr. Angelstone … I hope that when we meet in the fall that we have some happy people on both sides of this fence, literally,” Alls said to White at the conclusion of the meeting.
