Plans to create the Iron Mask Industrial Park at the site of the former Iron Mask mine in Kamloops will go to a public hearing on May 30.

City Councillors voted to send the application to rezone about 74 hectares of land (about 183 acres) between Sugarloaf Road and Bowers Place, near where the Coquihalla Highway and Trans-Canada Highway meet, to a public hearing.

Development Director Marvin Kwiatkowski says there has been a growing demand for industrial land across Kamloops over the past five years.

“We don’t have a lot of industrial land left, we’re down to 45.5 hectares of the zoned industrial land available,” he said. “The demand has gone from the 2 hectares historically per year up to 5.65. With that current demand, if everyone was willing to have their land sold or developed, we would have an eight year supply.”

Comet Industries President and CEO, Mike O’Reilly – a Kamloops City Councillor – says, if approved, this will be the first light industrial park in the City in 25 years.

O’Reilly, who’s been recusing himself from any discussions on industrial park developments at City Council, told NL News last September that he expected that lots would be ready for lease or sale by 2024.

Last fall, Comet Industries was in the process of a stage 2 environmental site investigation with the expectation that some remediation work would be needed – owing to historical mining activities on the property – before it got a certificate of compliance from BC’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy.

Pending a successful public hearing, City staff say the Zoning Amendment Bylaw in question – Bylaw No. 55-13 – will be held at third reading until the developers submit an approved traffic impact assessment and stormwater management plan.

It will also need approval from the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure owing to the proximity to a pair of major highways.

“This went to council in 2021 for the OCP amendment so at that time it went to the light industrial,” Kwiatkowski added.

“The type of uses we’re looking at would be a mix of trades and technology, research and development, warehousing, wholesale distribution, storage of materials and equipment, and other light industrial activities with compatible commercial uses.”