Owners of a U-pick organic blueberry farm have lost their bid to stop the Nanaimo Airport Commission from installing two navigational lights in a field.
A Supreme Court of B.C. decision released in Vancouver dismissed an application from owners Qing He Zhang and Min Yu to cancel an easement allowing the Nanaimo Airport Commission to install the lights.
When the couple bought the land on Rugby Road south of Nanaimo in 2011, the federal non-profit airport commission already held the easement. It was granted in 2007 to last in perpetuity, Justice Jan Brongers said in the decision.
Owners of the 54-acre Haslam Creek berry farm, who represented themselves in court, feared the lights would impair their ability to grow organic crops and would hinder the esthetics of the farm, the decision said.
The owners said that in order to comply with the B.C. Certified Organic Program, they will have to set up a buffer zone around the lights, meaning they will not be able to grow organic blueberries in that location. The decision did not specify the size of the buffer zone. Zhang and Yu had asked for a permanent injunction to prevent the commission from going ahead with the project.
They argued the easement is unnecessary and obsolete, but Brongers did not agree, saying cancelling the easement would cause injury to the commission.
In 2023, the commission told the couple that it planned to install two lights on the property as it moved to replace its older navigational lighting system with a simplified short approach lighting system with runway alignment indicator lights, the decision said.
It said the step was needed to comply with Transport Canada’s latest standards and practices for airports, and to remain in line with future Canadian Aviation Regulations amendments.
Brongers accepted the commission’s evidence that it had valid reasons to exercise its right under the easement to install lights needed for the new navigation lighting system.
The commission was concerned not being able to install the new navigational lights could affect the Nanaimo Airport’s ability to serve commercial aircraft in the future, he said.
The couple also unsuccessfully argued that the easement was invalid because the land is zoned as agricultural and cannot be used for non-farm use, he said.
The fact that the commission has not exercised its right in the past does not mean the easement is obsolete, Brongers said.
It’s clear the commission had the foresight to arrange an agreement for a perpetual easement specifically for lights in case they were necessary, he said. “That day has now arrived.”
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