Farm animals approved for Michel Creek Road

Sparwood council has adopted a zoning amendment that will formally allow farm animals on Michel Creek Road properties where that type of use has existed for years.

Council adopted Zoning Amendment Bylaw 1362, 2026 at its March 17 meeting after hearing that the change is meant to legalize a long-standing practice in the area and align zoning with how the land is already being used.

Director of Planning and Development Patrick Sorfleet said the bylaw creates a new zone called RAG, short for low density residential agriculture. The change affects Michel Creek Road properties previously zoned R1 and also adds pasture and rangeland as permitted uses in M2 and M3 zones, which include mine site lands.

“In essence, this change is going to add that new zone and add pasture and rangeland to the M2 and M3 zones, effectively the mine site, again, to mimic or to allow legally what is current practice, to allow pasture on those lands,” Sorfleet said.

Under the new RAG zone, the keeping of farm animals is a permitted use, but only for certain animals. Sorfleet said those are limited to horses, donkeys, cattle, chickens, rabbits and bees.

The bylaw also sets density limits. The maximum is two animal units per acre, rounded down for fractions of an acre, with a minimum parcel size of one acre before any animals can be kept.

Sorfleet explained that larger animals count as one animal unit while smaller animals count as fractions of a unit. He gave examples to show how the system would work in practice.

“So as an example, you could have a horse and five chickens on one acre,” he said. “If you had two acres, that could be two horses and 10 chickens, or two horses a cow and five chickens.”

The bylaw follows a public hearing and provincial approval. Sorfleet told council the Ministry of Transportation and Transit had approved the amendment and the bylaw was now before council for final adoption.

Wilks said the change was long overdue.

“I think they’ve been having animals on Michel Creek Road forever,” he said. “So just catching up on what should have probably been done many years ago.”

Council adopted the bylaw without opposition.

The decision formalizes what council described as a persistent and long existing rural use in the Michel Creek Road area and gives property owners a clearer legal framework for keeping a limited number of farm animals.