The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) is moving to expropriate about 1.26 hectares (three acres) of land in the Chapman Creek watershed currently owned by AJB Investments.
The logging company had an agreement with the SCRD, dating back to 1986, allowing a road through two of its properties to connect a forest service road with the drinking water intake.
In May, AJB invoked a clause in that agreement asking the SCRD to move the road within three months. The SCRD board voted to go ahead with expropriation at a closed-door meeting Aug. 18.
CAO Janette Loveys said, after three months of talks with AJB, the regional district felt expropriation of the road right-of-way was the only way to secure access to the intake and “ensure that the SCRD has access to the infrastructure to monitor, manage, and do the maintenance [on the water system].”
She said it is not connected to the Chapman Lake expansion project, or the back-up siphon system to draw extra water in case of severe drought.
Officials from AJB told Coast Reporter the company was surprised by the expropriation, because they felt they’d been negotiating in good faith. The company also said its decision to invoke the clause requiring the SCRD to move the road was part of an effort to decommission old roads and replant the area.
“The [SCRD] board was very careful in terms of understanding the public’s interest, and weighing the options. There were discussions [with AJB]; unfortunately, we were not able to find a resolution that the board felt was in the best interest of the public,” Loveys said.
Those discussions between AJB and the SCRD began amid a push from some in the community, led by Elphinstone Logging Focus, to get the regional district to purchase all of AJB’s land in the Chapman watershed. Loveys said the board did consider that possibility, but it was ruled out as being “cost prohibitive.”
The land for the right-of-way has been assessed at $15,540 but the company has a year to file a claim in BC Supreme Court for greater compensation. AJB hasn’t said if it plans to fight the expropriation itself, but a company spokesman told Coast Reporter it intends to do all it can to protect its legal rights as a property owner.
The expropriation will not affect AJB’s logging plans for the area.
