In advance of a public hearing on the rezoning of Lot L, Sechelt council moved at its Nov. 12 council meeting to sell one portion of the lot to Sechelt Organic Marijuana Corporation and another to former owner Michael Anderchek.
Anderchek is listed as the purchaser of parcel B representing company 0986190 B.C. Ltd., which put in a bid of $331,000 for the land.
Sechelt Organic Marijuana Corporation, represented by Len Werden, offered $310,000 for parcel A.
Parcels C and D were not offered for sale as they will be used to house the new public works building in the future.
Council directed staff to accept the offers for parcels A and B in a vote that saw only councillors Alice Lutes and Mike Shanks opposed.
Lutes spoke against the plan to sell a portion of Lot L, located between Dusty and Allen roads, to a medical marijuana producer.
“Our community is concerned about the effects of having more medical marijuana plants in our residential areas and this is a rather small lot that he has put his bid on,” Lutes said, noting she felt the facility could instead “be built in a more industrial area.”
Shanks noted that Lot L was bought with sewer reserve money by the previous council and he asked if that meant the proceeds of its sale needed to go back into the sewer reserve fund.
Council previously made a decision to use money from the sale of Lot L to buy more property in Davis Bay.
“The issue of where does the money go, the money always goes back to the sewer reserves. I have fielded a number of questions from the community as well as from the inspector of municipalities on the same subject and the key will be when all the dust settles who will own the land or who will own the money,” said chief financial officer Victor Mema. “So in this transaction, the land still belongs to sewer. If ever you bought the other property in Davis Bay as contemplated, that land still belongs to sewer until you designate it otherwise, and at that point then a general fund may have to pay that money back. So it’s an accounting issue. The process, the transaction is legal and permissible.”
Mayor John Henderson said the accounting side of things was a “little more complex” but noted, “at the moment, we’re just swapping two pieces of land. That’s how I’m looking at it. They’re both within the sewer reserve.”
When the question was called to accept the offers for parcels A and B from Anderchek and Werden, Henderson and councillors Darnelda Siegers, Tom Lamb and Chris Moore voted in favour, passing the motion.
Lot L is approximately 3.5 hectares. It has been subdivided into four lots and is currently zoned rural residential and designated for civic, institutional or utility purposes in the official community plan.
Sechelt plans to change the Lot L zoning to industrial, which is needed for Sechelt Organic Marijuana Corporation to set up on site. The zoning change must first go to a public hearing.
That public hearing is scheduled for Nov. 17 at the Seaside Centre at 7 p.m.
The November date was chosen after the original public hearing date of Oct. 28 was cancelled due to not enough public notice being given.
