Prestige Oceanfront Resort officials are holding their nose over the possibility of a pig feedlot near the Sooke hotel.
Debate and concern was sparked earlier this week after the owner of two neighbouring properties on West Coast Road said he would put a pig feedlot on the land if it isn’t taken out of the agricultural land reserve.
Terry Schneider, spokesperson for the Prestige, expressed concern over what impact a pig feedlot may have on the comfort of the hotel’s guests.
“I want to know more about it. Anything that would detract from the experience of our guests at our resort would be a concern to us if in fact that’s what will happen,” Schneider said, adding he’ll see what path the District of Sooke and the Agricultural Land Commission decides to take in the coming weeks.
The troubled properties at 6912 and 7166 West Coast Rd. were at the epicentre of a similar dispute two years ago, involving the previous landowner, Ed Shaw, who desperately tried put in a fish farm in order to create some income, after several ALR exclusions with the ALC were rejected.
In 2012, Shaw sent in two exclusion applications of three properties totalling 16.6 hectares from the ALR in return for the inclusion of two properties totalling 11.4 ha on Kemp Lake Road. Both were refused, with the ALC report saying “the property has good agricultural capability and suitability.”
“I was looking at foreclosure, I was fighting with the government, fighting with municipal hall up here, couldn’t get anywhere,” Shaw said. “I said, I gotta do something or I’m finished.”
Shaw said he took all his family’s RRSPs and savings and cashed them in to try to keep the land. After meeting with much opposition from the Sooke community, and the ALC refusing to remove his land out from the ALR, his family’s last remaining $350,000 dissolved in taxes and penalty fees over having ALR land but not farming it.
“Farm it, or lose it, and we lost it. Plain and simple.”
In 2016, Shaw’s properties were foreclosed and sold, in addition to a lawsuit by the bank for what they didn’t get out of the sale of the land and houses.
A portion of the land was also used by Packwest RC Flyers, a local remote control flying club, at least until the land was foreclosed and the club was booted off the property.
Now, a year later, the new owner, Alberta resident Anthony Laughren, faces a similar challenge with the land, which was reported to be “damaged” and “unfarmable” though Laughren has not yet put an exclusion application with the ALC and is appealing to the district for a support letter beforehand.
As far as the ALC is concerned, an application first goes to the municipal government, then it gets sent to the ALC board for further review.
“The district may forward it to the ALC with comments supporting it,” said Sara Huber, ALC’s land use planner for Vancouver Island. “They do have the opportunity to refuse to forward it, which would then in turn refuse the application overall.”
Sooke council will direct district staff to prepare a report regarding the ALC’s exclusion application at the regular council meeting on Monday night (May 8.)