Skip to content

Castlegar Council Briefs: birds, bees and building boom

Castlegar council adopts bylaws permitting chickens and bees.
21897329_web1_200409-CAN-council-covid-support_1
An image from Castlegar city council on Zoom.

Castlegar City council passed a number of resolutions and bylaws at its June 15 meeting.

Bees and chickens

Bee keeping and backyard hens are now allowed in the city. There are a number of stipulations involved with keeping the animals, however.

Conditions for keeping bees include applying for a license, obtaining a beekeeper identification number from the province, keeping hives behind the house, having a maximum of four colonies and having a minimum of 25-metre spacing from public places and electric fencing.

Conditions for keeping chickens include obtaining a license, no roosters, a maximum of five hens only four months of age or older, electric fencing, a coop or pen with minimum size requirements per hen and keeping coops out of view from the street.

READ MORE: City of Castlegar moving forward with backyard chickens and bees

Twin Rivers Estates

A public hearing was held through Zoom prior to the evening council meeting regarding a zoning amendment request for Phase 2 of the Twin Rivers Estates project.

The zoning amendment was then adopted during the council meeting.

The development is an expansion of Twin Rivers Estates and will be located in lower Kinnaird at 3805 Columbia Avenue. It will include 51 single family dwellings, one duplex and six multi-family parcels.

The requested zoning change will permit slightly smaller lots, making room for eight more homes.

READ MORE: Zoning hearing scheduled for major Castlegar housing development

Canada Day

Since the city will not be able to host a Canada Day event due to COVID-19 restrictions, council has decided to use a use a $1,250 grant from the Department of Canadian Heritage to develop a “Celebrating Canada” community video to celebrate Canada Day and the City of Castlegar.

The city is seeking submissions from local residents for the project.

Licences and permits

Building permits are up significantly from last year with year-to-date permits totaling more than $9 million. For the same period of 2019, permits valued $1.3 million.

New industrial developments total about $5.3 million, single-family dwellings total $1.5 million, residential alterations total about $800,000, commercial alterations total $1 million and institutional alterations total about $400,000.

Business Licence applications are down slightly from 2019. As of the end of May, the city had issued 606 licences compared to 626 for the same period in 2019.

Stop signs

City crews will be installing two stop signs on 9th Avenue at the 27th Street intersection to enhance the safety of the area.

RELATED: Castlegar FedEx facility scheduled for fall opening

RELATED: Courier company building Castlegar warehouse



Betsy Kline

About the Author: Betsy Kline

After spending several years as a freelance writer for the Castlegar News, Betsy joined the editorial staff as a reporter in March of 2015. In 2020, she moved into the editor's position.
Read more