
The Columbia Shuswap Regional District board of directors voted to support an Agricultural Land Reserve exclusion application in hopes it will allow Lee Creek residents whose homes were destroyed in the 2023 Bush Creek East Wildfire to rebuild.
At the Jan. 16 CSRD meeting, the board was presented with an ALR exclusion application for two properties in Lee Creek.
Laura Gibson, planner two for the CSRD, presented a report on the application.
“This application is currently in stage three of the ALR exclusion application process,” she said. “So what that means is the board needs to make a resolution whether to forward this application to the ALC [Agricultural Land Commission] or not.”
In 2023, the Bush Creek East wildfire destroyed eight of the fifteen dwellings that existed on these two properties. However, since the properties are part of the Agricultural Land Reserve, residents whose homes were destroyed are currently prohibited from rebuilding.
The properties are shared interest properties with seven owners on title for each property.
As part of the second stage of the process, the application was forwarded to seven First Nations with nearby territory, and none of them indicated they didn't support the proposed exclusion.
“A public hearing was also held at Quaaout Lodge,” Gibson said. “It was held on Dec. 5. Thirty-eight members of the public were in attendance, and of those, 28 spoke up in support of the ALR exclusion.”
She also noted 23 written submissions were received from the public, and all were in support of the ALR exclusion.
“The common themes of the responses included that the land is not good agricultural land and should never have been included in the ALR,” Gibson said.
“The owners lost their homes due to a wildfire that was no fault of their own. The owners who live there, who are primarily seniors, want to return home to the land that they have lived on most of their lives and have such strong ties to.”
She said many people pointed out the land is quite unsuited for agriculture due to tough and rocky soil, and therefore it should not be part of the ALR.
Gibson said staff recommends supporting this application for exclusion, noting the property was never originally intended to be part of the ALR and was only added at the request of residents more than 40 years ago.
She noted this change was made “not without hesitation from the Ministry of Agriculture.”
Director Jay Simpson, representing the North Shuswap, spoke up to encourage the board to support the application.
“The public hearing was quite emotional,” he said. "There were tears and hugs and all kinds of strange things going on. I definitely want to move this through.”
He also asked if there was any way to request an expedited process from the ALC.
“Given that spring is coming and we'd like to get things rolling as quickly as we can, and get these people back on to their properties that they've owned and loved for 50 years or more,” he said. “I'm not sure how that could enter into our communication with the ALC, but I would ask that we might be able to make some kind of a request.”
John MacLean, chief administrative officer, said the CSRD could include a letter requesting an expedited process on the request.
The board voted unanimously in support of the ALR exclusion application.