Home-grown business disappointed to see RDOS vote against their temporary use permit applications - Penticton News (2024)

A wellness farm located in Kaleden is feeling disappointed after their temporary use permit (TUP) was denied on Thursday, thus ending their family business and confirming their move out of the Okanagan.

At Thursday's Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen board meeting, rural area directors had a choice to make on whether to allow a one-year TUP for year-round tourist accommodation use of a two-bedroom accessory dwelling, and the residential use of a recreational vehicle (RV).

Graystar Wellness Farm, owned by Tracy Grey and Darren MacLellan, moved to the property located in the Saddle Horn Drive area almost three years ago.

The report from staff to the board recommended a denial of the TUP, stating while the "proposal is generally seen to be in keeping with the TUP criteria under Section 23.3.4 of the OCP Bylaw, administration has concerns with respect to the health and safety of the proposed residential use of the RV and does not find there to be policy support for the proposed tourist accommodation use."

Multiple neighbours wrote in support and against the TUP for the property, with some expressing their displeasure with "large groups of people" coming on the property and into "their quiet subdivision with no consideration of the neighbours."

There were also concerns about the easem*nt, which is currently the subject of a civil suit.

In the report, staff said they recognized there have been concerns raised in written submissions with respect to the use of a private access easem*nt to facilitate the tourist accommodation use.

"It is the regional district’s understanding, however, that the subject property has a legal access point to Saddlehorn Drive at the north end of the property," the report reads.

"While it is understood that the legal access point to the subject property has not been developed or used for vehicular traffic due to topographical constraints, conflicts regarding use of private easem*nts are seen to be a civil matter which should be resolved between the involved named parties on the easem*nt."

Grey presented more details about the business to the board during Thursday's meeting, sharing details on her work as a family counsellor and a certified equine professional.

"My home-based business is in my home, I see people virtually and in my home office and also on the land. I live here full time, and so my home-based business goes beyond the footprint of my actual dwelling and encompasses my whole property. As a counsellor and coach, I work year round with people online, and they come and stay with us at our farm and our accessory dwelling," she said.

"I also wanted to just say that I walk the trails that are around our property and use this property with my clients both to ground and connect with nature. When the cottage is not used by my coaching clients, family and friends, we do open it up to short-term tourists throughout the year. Generally not up to more than 30 days, presently."

She added that they've been working diligently for the last two years to remediate some ongoing issues.

"The crossing of the easem*nt that has been expressed to be concerning of our neighbours is very minor in nature. It's really only as people are driving into the property and as you can see close to the residence, we've cleared some land and built a retaining wall and there's a pathway there that goes to the barn," Grey said.

"That's all on our property. So the amount of time anybody actually does cross this easem*nt [including] us or family or friends or guests is quite minimal and that pathway is all exclusively on our property."

MacLellan addressed the RV residential use and how the vehicle is being used by their foster son not as his full-time residence.

He said his foster son deals with significant developmental delays, addiction issues and mental health issues that have required the care of a psychiatrist since he was eight years old.

"So he's staying in the RV, just as a place to kind of hang out, but he showers, he does his laundry, he keeps his food, all of the main essential stuff is done in the main house. Really, the trailer is just used as a place for him to hang out."

He said he's concerned that limiting his ability to access the RV, which has been a supportive independent space for him, will have a negative impact on his life.

"Doing so could be construed as ableism, which is defined as the discrimination of and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior."

After the presentation, Penticton Mayor Julius Bloomfield asked about the legal dispute and whether it was to determine who has what rights over the easem*nt.

"The action is to allow us equitable rights with the easem*nt, given that there's no other way to access the west end of our property except via this easem*nt," Grey answered.

West Bench Area Director Riley Gettens said she also felt the easem*nt issue needed to be settled before a TUP could be issued.

Kaleden Director Subrina Monteith said she can't support the application since the easem*nt is a "big issue for the community and for the neighbours."

"They've had a vacation rental on that property for a while now and it has not gone well. The neighbours have said that," she added.

"I cannot support living in an RV in Area I, that's not okay. So for those reasons, I do not support the application."

Princeton Rural Director Bob Coyne said he was having a tough time with this decision.

"There's so many unanswered questions here to make this sort of a decision that we're going to kick somebody out of a living space that is mentally challenged," he said.

"I don't feel that we have enough background, or there's so many other little things going on here in this process, that I don't think that we can actually make a fair decision on this today. I don't like this one at all."

Some board members questioned why the TUP was presented as one decision with two parts instead of being separated into two decisions. Staff said the couple chose to do it that way.

Grey said otherwise, expressing that she was directed to combine them.

In the end, directors Bob Coyne, George Bush, Adrienne Fedrigo and Rick Knodel voted against denying the TUP, but the rest of the rural directors voted in favour, thus ending the family business.

Grey said after the outcome of the board meeting, she was surprised at how much was focused around the easem*nt issue for RDOS directors, when the staff report rather expressed questions on their business.

"We thought that the reason they were going to deny was because of the home-based business, that they were not considering this a viable home-based business," she added.

"We really just made the assumption that it was going to be about, 'Does this qualify for a home-based business that can happen all year?' So that was the way that we were presenting it. So it really caught us off guard when it actually ended up being about the easem*nt and they were not prepared to make a decision because the easem*nt was essentially under litigation, so then no decision could be made."

When they first purchased the property, the pair said they were also unaware the two-bedroom accessory dwelling was built without the permit, which they've been working to rectify as well.

Grey said the building inspector officially approved it for occupancy on Friday.

"To try and go through that process to be in compliance is long, expensive and arduous and time consuming. And then to not have it go through. ...We were quite surprised. We really did think that we had addressed the concerns."

She said there is some work-around with the RV and allowing their son to use it for 90 days, go into respite care and come back, but losing it all is a tough pill to swallow.

"That was really disappointing to sort of see my neighbours actively come out and take a stand against us when we're trying to build something beautiful and therapeutic and healing for people in this community. So that was hard to be in the middle of that," Grey added.

"It was also really disappointing to have to call our people that we had booked for the summer and tell them, 'You can't come for your honeymoon. Sorry, we can't host your family reunion.'"

Grey and her family said they still plan to list their property for sale and move out of the Okanagan once the legal process is completed.