Okanagan College and its partners are considering their options after receiving news that the Agricultural Land Commission will not approve an application to reclassify 10 acres of the Vernon campus. The application for reclassification would have moved the College one step closer toward their goal of developing a $7.8-million multi-use sports facility The partners applied to the ALC earlier this year after several years of cooperative planning and significant support from potential user groups. College Dean, John Lent explained they had obviously hoped for a different outcome, but have to respect the mandate of the comission. In its letter to Okanagan College, the ALC concluded the proposed 10 acre piece of land is suitable for agricultural use and that if moved out of the ALR the potential of the property for agricultural development would be negatively impacted. The facility would have included an Olympic size rubberized track, artificial playing field and field house, all for use by a variety of community groups.
3 comments:
Can any of the politicians be surprised by this? I guess the answere is "yes"-they are foolish enough to think that they are so important that they get what they ask for.
Perhaps it is time to review who sits on the ALR and what is in the Best Public interest.
If the land is not currently being used or viable as agriculture useage, then unseen appointed directors of the ALR need to be held accountable.
Pshaw, they just need to appeal the decision by bringing some additional information to bear.
An awful lot of the time the ALC will overturn initial decisions on appeal. Particularly when it is significantly in the local interest.
So is this?
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