Owners of former golf course delay bid to remove land from ALR
Some comments by Mr. Blackwell in the Times Colonist article (dated Oct 27th) headlined as above, leave me baffled...
"The owners of the former Royal Oak Golf Course property in Saanich have postponed their application to remove the land from the provincial Agricultural Land Reserve in order to allow for more consultation with the community." - Times Colonist
From where does he get the idea that there has been any consultation with the community, to date? The developers, nor Mr. Blackwell, have tried to reach out to the surrounding neighbours, in any way, shape or form, except for a flyer sent out when they purchased the property. I've heard (when property was first purchased) there was a short meeting between the developers and some of the surrounding Strata Councils, but the owners were unwilling to share any information about future plans. Irregardless Strata Councils cannot speak for indiviual owners. Nor have the owhers submitted any kind of prospective to Saanich Planning, as to their intentions.
"Ross Blackwell, senior planner with Four Corners Planning Group, which is making the application on behalf of the owners, said they decided to delay the application because they were concerned the council discussion would be complicated by talk of gardening and food security." -Times Colonist
The application before Saanich Planning and Council is to remove designated ALR land from it's present zoning. Should it therefore not be the focus of the discussions? Food security worries, brought on by our ever changing climate are foremost in most of our minds and the land use in question may not be needed at present but as is designated, 'to be used in future'. We are almost totally dependant on imported foods and the areas where these imports come from are also under threat....raging wildfires in California (fruits and vegetables), major flooding and storms in the mid-west (wheat, corn etc.), and it seems, lately, imports from European nations, such as Serbia, of all places (tariffs and uncertainty). There should be great concern over our ability, especially here on the Island, to provide for our nutritional needs.
"Madrone Environmental Services Ltd. prepared an assessment of the land’s capability for agricultural use for the applicant, which says 70 per cent of the land has a poor capability for agriculture based on its topography and bedrock." -Times Colonist
The validity of this report seems questionable, in my opinion. In Feb of 2019 the City of Powell River also hired Madrone Enviromental Services to conduct an agricultural capability study on land they wished to include in the ALR.
According to Elliot’s report, two parcels totalling 47.4 hectares in size were evaluated and found to have a mixture of land identified as suitable for fair, poor and very poor agricultural capability. The fair and poor evaluations are areas that could be improved to support general agriculture and a variety of crops can be grown. Elliot concluded that the airport reserve lands are a fairly strong candidate for inclusion in the ALR to support agriculture.
The two assesments seem to conculude that the lands in question, have extremely similar, if not extact, capabilities. Why then, I ask, is one sutibable to be inculded in the ALR and the property at 540 Marsett only suitable for removable? Could it be (bite my tongue), who is paying for the report?