Town approves rezoning for UFA card lock & bulk fuel facility
October 27, 2025, 11:42 am
Nicole Taylor, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Moosomin town council has approved the rezoning of land at 1814 Celebration Drive to accommodate a UFA cardlock and bulk fuel facility at that location.
At their meeting on Wednesday, council gave second and third reading to a bylaw amendment to rezone the land from commercial to industrial to allow for the facility.
Councillors Garry Towler, Heather Truman, Andie Hodgson, and Devin Nosterud were in favour of the motion to rezone. Councillors Kyla Fingas and and Victor Santos Cardoza were opposed.
The motion came after a nearly hour-long discussion between a number of business owners who attended the meeting—including two reps from UFA—as well as discussions between, and questions from, council members.
After a public hearing at the previous council meeting, council tabled the second reading of the bylaw. At that meeting the town received 11 written submissions in favour of the cardlock and two opposed to it.
As part of their correspondence on Wednesday, the council received another two letters regarding the cardlock—one from Guy Shepherd and one from Lea Wiens—opposed to it.
Attending the meeting were Aaron Grandguillot, the owner of Skout Brewing, Tyler Thorn, the owner of Celebration Ford, and the owner of the land that UFA is planning to purchase, his father Bill Thorn, and David Roberts and Craig Marriott with UFA.
Before voting on the rezoning, council opened the floor to those in attendance to hear what they had to say.
Aaron Grandguillot, who presented a letter as part of the public hearing at the previous meeting opposing the rezoning—said his concerns remained the same and were mostly about excess truck traffic across from his brewery.
Tyler Thorn spoke for the rezoning, pointing out that under the current zoning, a gas bar would be permitted at that location, and that the rezoning was only taking place to accommodate the bulk fuel. He also addressed some concerns that had come up previously at the public hearing, pointing out that if parking or traffic ever becomes an issue due to the UFA development on Celebration Drive, he did not feel that hindering development should be the answer, but that the town should instead use bylaw enforcement to ensure large trucks are not parking on the street.
He also noted that Eastgate Business Park had been developed privately with a significant infrastructure investment into the business park at no cost to the town, and he said that the new UFA would generate about $49,000 in additional tax revenue for the town annually. He added that Celebration Drive had been developed to handle heavy truck traffic, addressing another concern that came up previously about the street.
Both he and his father Bill said that they had not solicited UFA to purchase land at that location, but that they had been approached by a realtor on behalf of UFA about purchasing that land.
David Roberts and Craig Marriott with UFA answered a number of questions about the development. They said that UFA had looked at all other potential sites in the Moosomin area and that the land on Celebration Drive was the only location they wanted to invest in.
They said most of the traffic at the site would be farm based trucks and local customers with the facility likely to see an increase during the harvest season. They said peak traffic times would likely be between 6-8 am with around 20 vehicles while later in the day their facilities tended to be quieter.
They also told council that in both Strathmore and Sylvan Lake, Alberta, they had locations in commercially zoned areas, and they put a lot of care into developing their sites for both environmental reasons, and to ensure the sites are properly developed for the long-term.
They said the Moosomin site would consist of 4-5 people working out of it.
Councillor Kyla Fingas expressed concern that if the town were to rezone for UFA they were setting a precedent and it would be unfair not to rezone for other businesses in that area that requested it.
Councillor Andie Hodgson said she disagreed, and as long as each rezoning applications were looked at on a case-by-case basis and considered by council, anyone requesting rezoning was being treated fairly.
Councillor Victor Santos Cardoza asked UFA if they would still go ahead with a card lock at that location if the town rejected the bulk fuel and UFA said yes, they would, and they would reapply for the bulk fuel later, as they had had that happen in the past with another community. They said in that case they were successful in adding the bulk fuel afterwards.
Mayor Murray Gray pointed out that council had plenty of information on which to make a decision and prompted council to vote on the rezoning, which was carried.
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