Photo: RDOS

An Oliver man who had his request to expand his business denied in December now has a rare second shot at refining his application right away. 

Raghvir Dhaliwal, owner of the Oliver Rental Centre located on Sawmill Road, sought permission from the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen to use Agricultural Land Reserve land for his business, but was shot down. 

In February, the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen received a letter from Dhaliwal requesting he be given a second chance at his application, stating he was unaware of any zoning issues at the site given he took over the property last year from Woody's Glass, which had operated for 25 years. 

"The previous owner also stated that he was operating lawfully by his understanding," Dhaliwal wrote in his letter. 

Normally under RDOS bylaws, re-submission of an application for non-farm use on ALR land must automatically wait 12 months after the initial application. But the board voted unanimously Thursday to waive that waiting period in Dhaliwal's case. 

"My understanding is it's going to be different than the last application that we declined," said board chair Karla Kozakevich, explaining that in the original proposal Dhaliwal was looking for an expansion, without even realizing his existing business wasn't zoned properly.

"We want to give them an opportunity to see if the board would allow them to carry on with what they're doing, put it to the Agricultural Land Commission to see if they will allow it, we didn't want to end up having them lose that business. They didn't realize they weren't complying in the first place."

Area C rural Oliver director Rick Knodel spoke up in favour of letting Dhaliwal have a second shot. Knodel had said after the initial refusal in December that he had struggled with turning down the business application. 

"It was one of those decisions that really kind of plays against my normal philosophies on private property and land ownership," Knodel said in December. "My personal philosophy is if you own the property it's yours."

Dhaliwal will now have the opportunity to revise his application for his business' non-farm use on ALR land and put it before the RDOS at a future meeting.