Landowners in Central Saanich are fighting the municipality to be able to cut down protected trees on their property so they can expand farming.
The landowners, at 1720 Keating Cross Rd., took the District of Central Saanich to court after being told they had to stop cutting trees down and possibly pay a fine.
The B.C. Supreme Court ruled in favour of the property owners, but the district is appealing the decision to the Court of Appeal.
The 16.1-acre plot was bought by the McHattie family in 1937 and has been used for farming ever since, most recently for cultivating barley.
In 1973, about half of the land was designated as part of the agricultural land reserve.
In 2020, the owners started clearing trees on their land that is outside the reserve, preparing for an expansion of grain and forage crops, according to the B.C. Supreme Court judgment.
The district wrote to the owners that year saying it had received a complaint about trees being removed, in violation of the district’s tree protection bylaw, which prohibits the clearing of any protected tree without a permit.
The district’s bylaw enforcement officer told the owners there is a $1,000 fine per tree for unauthorized removal and the district would send an arborist to determine how many trees had been cleared without permission.
The district told the owners to “cease all work on the non-ALR [portion of the lot] until further notice.”
Later, the district told the owners they would have to replace 103 of the 108 protected trees with 791 trees and pay a security of $422,193.75.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Veronica Jackson ruled in favour of the landowners, determining that the district’s tree protection bylaw did not apply to the portion of land in question.
Jackson wrote in her decision that there are limitations to the application of the bylaw.
In this case, the land is zoned for agricultural use and the bylaw does not apply if it prevents development of the land for its permitted use, she wrote.
“The tree replacement order of the district in this case, which requires the planting of more than 700 trees, exemplifies the significant restrictive impact the tree protection bylaw can have on the permitted agricultural activity on the non-ALR portion of [the property]. As the land owners noted, one cannot farm in a forest,” Jackson wrote.
In a statement, the district said it’s concerned the decision could have negative environmental impacts across B.C. and will be appealing.
“While the district supports and advocates for agricultural land and active farming, certain tree-cutting requires oversight to balance the need to protect certain trees,” the district said.
A member of the McHattie family, who own the property, said they received notice of the district’s appeal on Thursday and declined to comment further while the matter is before the courts.
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