Ranch’s revenue hopes shot down

By Tyler Olsen - Vernon Morning Star - February 22, 2008

The Agricultural Land Commission has pitchforked hopes for an RV park at O’Keefe Ranch, which had been seen as a possible cure for the attraction’s money woes. The commission shot down the ranch’s application for a non-farm use permit on a patch of land currently used to grow hay. “They felt very strongly that since it wasn’t on the heritage building footprint, it was on farm land, they were going to take a strong stand that this is good, valley-bottom farmland,” said O’Keefe Ranch and Interior Heritage Society president Rod Drennan. “We felt we made a very good case for what is called a non-farm use. We were not looking for an exclusion,” he added. The ranch has been steadily losing money and the board had hoped an RV park would provide a steady stream of revenue for the attraction, which is owned by the City of Vernon. “We have to look outside the box, we have to look at something different and this is something we thought we could do,” said a disappointed Drennan. “I guess our board has to go back to the drawing board and have more discussion with the city as the owner of the ranch.”

Coun. Barry Beardsell, who sits on a city committee examining ranch issues, said the decision is a blow to the ranch.“I don’t know where we turn next. The ranch is in desperate financial straits.”Beardsell, who praised the ranch’s board and volunteers, sees an appeal to the province for funding as a last resort. “I think most of the hope lies with the provincial government,” he said.

----------

Editorial Morning Star Province should lend a hand

It’s time for the provincial government to move on from the recently introduced carbon tax and, instead, focus on helping something that’s as old as the province itself. Vernon’s O’Keefe Ranch, established by the O’Keefe family in 1867, is again in financial straits after its hopes to establish an RV park at the ranch, to generate desperately needed revenue, was cut down by the Agricultural Land Commission. The ALC said no to a ranch request for a non-farm use permit on a patch of land currently used to grow hay. The commission said the area requested for a park was on good valley-bottom farmland, while the ranch had hoped to point out it was located on non-farm use. The commission didn’t agree. So now, a heritage site that provides a strong glimpse of what ranch life was like in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and is run by a board and volunteers, is in danger of perhaps closing its operation because of a lack of funding. O’Keefe Ranch is owned by the City of Vernon, and the board has said it will likely meet with city officials to discuss the ranch’s future. This is where the province needs to step in. Eagerly promoting itself as “The Best Place On Earth,” B.C. is in the midst of a huge promotional campaign titled BC150 Years, a celebration that focuses on five strong provincial pillars, including heritage. Certainly the O’Keefe Ranch, founded four years before B.C. became a province, falls under that category. The ranch has provided entertainment and historical education to generations of B.C. residents. The least the province can do is step in with some money to ensure its survival.