'Such a relief': Prairie Gardens reopens after resolving permit issues with county

Starting Friday, Prairie Gardens will be allowed to reopen to the public for the remainder of the 2022 season after committing to various conditions with Sturgeon County.

The popular u-pick fruit and vegetable business was forced to close last month after a stop operations order from the county was enforced.

A spokesperson for the county told CTV News Edmonton in August that multiple complaints had been received about the property related to noise, trespassing, traffic issues, permit compliance and "other" issues.

On Friday, the county said that Prairie Gardens could resume the greenhouse, u-pick market and gardens, corn maze, hay rides, and other small-scale events for the remainder of the season.

“It is such a relief, we’re open, we’re finally open, and our pumpkin season can get underway,” said Prairie Gardens owner Tam Andersen.

“When we planted our pumpkins we ordered thousands of pumpkin seeds, we planted them in the greenhouse, we transplanted them in the field, we looked after the crop the entire season. It’s a huge significant investment for us.”

In order to resume operations, Prairie Gardens agreed to the following conditions:

• Make safety improvements that align with Alberta Transportation guidelines to ensure safe movement of vehicles to and within its sites, manoeuvring of vehicle types, traffic movements, traffic volumes, and vehicle speeds.
• Make safety improvements for parking and property access and impose restrictions on pedestrian movement between its two sites.
• Adopt revised operating hours between 8 a.m. and 9:30 p.m.

The business must also adhere to a vehicle trip limit, that is based on intersection capacity and Alberta Transportation Standards.

During normal operations the maximum is 100 trips per day at the south entrance and 50 trips per day at the north entrance.

For peak season operations, traffic flow is expected to increase to 380 vehicles at the north entrance and 174 at the south entrance.

“We now have an excellent traffic accommodation plan in place,” Andersen said.

“It’s not that we’re so busy every day of the year, but we have a few busy weekends and for sure coming into October, Halloween, these will be our peak season.”

There will be a $10 per car fee to help demonstrate the trip limit has been adhered to.

The stop operations order was initially issued on Oct. 15, 2021 with the two parties entering into an agreement 12 days later that required Prairie Gardens to complete a series of tasks to remedy the concerns.

Prairie Gardens appealed the order in November, but the Subdivision and Development Appeal Board upheld the order in December, setting a deadline of Oct. 22, 2022 to comply.

Prairie Gardens is about 41 kilometres north of Edmonton near Bon Accord, Alta.