Ramsay residents saying goodbye to Lilydale Poultry Plant

CALGARY -

Many residents in Ramsay say they're happy to bid farewell to a controversial chicken processing plant in the heart of their neighbourhood. 

The Lilydale plant has been operating in the area for decades as the community has grown around it and become increasingly residential. 

But come January the plant -- and the odour that has come to be well known by area residents -- will be far away. 

The City of Calgary and Sofina Foods worked together to secure a new location, about 15 kilometers south in the Dufferin North Industrial Park. 

The City will take possession of the old building on Jan. 15, 2022.

"The community has been counting down to having it leave," Erin Joslin with the Ramsay Community Association told CTV News.

"We've been watching closely to see if there's less cars in the parking lot (and wondering) what's the timeline? When's it actually happening?

"We've always known that it wasn't the right fit. Even they know they're not the right fit."

In previous years, Ramsay residents have complained of a smell coming from the plant, as well as noise, traffic and the occasional stray chicken part found in their backyard. 

Robbin Tufts has lived across from the plant since 1992 when it was then owned by Pinecrest Foods.

“Pinecrest ran a pretty loose ship and there was definitely escaped livestock in the neighbourhood, we actually had neighbours who captured them and even raised them in their yards,” said Tufts.

“There were severe problems with chicken parts being picked up by crows and dropped into our yards, but once we started working with the team at Sofina, they really cleaned up a lot of that stuff.”

Tufts notes that Sofina Foods has been very pleasant to deal with over the last few years in mitigating noise complaints, with better truck schedules for pick-ups and ensuring the nearby yard was clean.

He now looks forward to a new vision of the Ramsay neighbourhood once the Green Line LRT is built.

“The city has been working toward transit-oriented development through the whole LRT process, so they've been sort of courting the kind of businesses that an LRT would attract to try and move into the neighborhood,” said Tufts.

“So, we'll probably see more, a bit more shopping and restaurants and local stuff and it’s an indication to me of how our neighborhood is changing and how the city is viewing our neighborhood as a city center.”

Area Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra believes the move wouldn't have been done if it weren't for plans to build the Green Line LRT nearby.

Carra says the Lilydale building will temporarily be used for police training exercises. After that, it will be demolished to make way for the transit project.

“So, what we're doing is we're taking the largest chicken abattoir in Alberta and we're moving it to a brand-new, state of the art facility.

“This Lilydale plant in Ramsay is the largest private water user in the city, so fiendishly expensive and inefficient and we’re now moving it into a gleaming, recyclable water, state of the art plant that can grow and grow and grow, which hits all of our economic diversification targets.”