A local farmer says an RV park set up on his farmland is the reason he can afford to stay in the industry.
But on Monday, council voted against Calvin Kuipers, who was applying for a permit to house the trailers on his McCulloch Road property.
Kuipers says he's been operating as an RV park since 2009.
"October 10, 2009, the temperature went down to -10 degrees for three days. We lost almost half of our plants. We would not have had the money to re-plant, had it not been for the RV park," he said.
He says back in 2009, he wasn't officially notified that his park couldn't keep RVs longer than a month, or that he couldn't operate it year-round.
But the city says it's received plenty of complaints over those two issues, and has fined Kuipers multiple times.
Kuipers says he doesn't buy the argument that housing farm workers in temporary housing doesn't benefit the industry.
"There's a beautiful six-acre vinyard on the corner of McCulloch and Gulley Road, complete with a tiny winery, alpacas, chickens, and sheep," he said.
"Pruners, pickers, general farm help can stay in our park for the toilet and shower facilities. as well as the laundry. Back to the question, what direct and significant benefit does the RV park have to agriculture? A larger labour pool because of decent conditions."
But council was united in its decision to disallow his request for full-time RV status, and expressed frustration at his track record of contravening bylaw.
"It's absolutely unfair to the neighbours, who have been living with this headache for a long time," said Mayor Colin Basran.
"So I would advise the property owner to work with our staff and get this property in compliance. Because it is not a good use of taxpayer funds to have to go through the court system in order to get compliance, when it's clear that this doesn't meet the spirit of our bylaws or the Agricultural Land Commission's."
Basran was referencing Planning Manager Todd Cashin's point that legal action could come if Kuipers doesn't come in line with the bylaws.