CRD orders halt to road building on disputed land

Construction violates development permit rules, letter claims
Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
Western Forest Products has been told to stop building roads around Jordan River and Shirley in an area the company wants to subdivide.
The Capital Regional District has sent a letter to the forest company saying the road building contravenes development permit rules.

Bob Lapham, CRD planning manager, said the main concerns are steep slopes and environmentally sensitive areas. “They cannot alter the land without permits,” he said.

No reply has yet been received from the company and, if they persist with the work without applying for permits, the CRD will go to court, Lapham said.

WFP has applied to the provincial Highways Ministry approving officer to build 319 acreages in the oceanfront and ocean-view areas of Vancouver Island’s southwest corner.

The land was formerly private forestland included in a tree farm licence, but last year former forests minister Rich Coleman gave WFP permission to pull private lands out of the TFL. The company then put the land on the market and provisionally sold it to developer Ender Ilkay.

But after a public outcry, the CRD rezoned the former forestry and resource lands to 120-hectare minimum lot sizes.

The controversial subdivision application takes advantage of a delay in the province approving the new CRD zoning bylaws.

The delay allowed WFP to apply under the old rules, with one year to obtain subdivision approval and complete preliminary layout work. That 12-month period is up in April.

WFP chief operating officer Duncan Kerr has said that roads are being built only in areas where they can be used for logging if the subdivision application is turned down.

However, Lapham said provincial rules allowing construction of logging roads apply only when the land is being used for forestry and comes under the Private Managed Forest Land Act.

As the company has applied to subdivide the area, it no longer comes under those provincial regulations, he said.

“They are being treated the same way as anyone else,” he said.

The rules should not surprise the company as, when the province asked for CRD comments on the application, the Highways Ministry was told development permits and environmental assessments were needed, Lapham said.

Two other lawsuits are pending over the CRD rezoning.

A B.C. Supreme Court hearing is expected Sept. 15 on an application by WFP to quash the zoning changes based on lack of fairness, lack of notification, claims that the CRD exceeded its jurisdiction and acted unreasonably.

The Association of B.C. Landowners is also fighting the bylaws, which caught some smaller landowners in the zoning changes.

The group is challenging the system which allows all CRD directors to debate land-use issues in Juan de Fuca electoral area, but the vote is decided by Juan de Fuca electoral area director Erik Lund, Metchosin Mayor John Ranns and Central Saanich Mayor Jack Mar.