Lawyers for the Capital Regional District were in B.C. Supreme Court in Victoria this week defending a down zoning on lands west of the city against a challenge from the Association of B.C. Landowners and Western Forest Products.

“It will go down to a point of law and not what the public interest is,” said environmental activist Vicky Husband, who has been in court observing. “Obviously the CRD acted to protect the broad public interest here, not a few landowners. The CRD acted for the public good here, clearly.”

The dispute goes back to January, 2007, when the provincial government released 28,000 hectares of WFP's private land from management under the province's Tree Farm License system, a move auditor general John Doyle said in a July, 2008, report was made without due consideration for the public interest.

Under intense pressure from the Sea-to-Sea Greenbelt Society, the Dogwood Initiative and members of the public, the CRD put in bylaws that require a minimum lot size of 120 hectares for much of the area. They also limited the subdivision of existing lots smaller than 10 acres. The bylaws affect WFP's lands, but also many smaller landowners who may have planned to subdivide.

The down zoning put on hold WFP's sale of 2,550 hectares to Vancouver developer Ender Ilkay, whose rough plans included a village of 10,000 people at Jordan River plus hundreds of rural lots.

Meanwhile, days before then municipal affairs minister Ida Chong approved the CRD's bylaws, WFP applied to the provincial transportation ministry for approval of 319 lots of between two and five hectares on the land to be approved under the previously existing process. That process leaves the decision in the hands of one civil servant, Bob Wylie.

Last week, WFP's chief operating officer, Duncan Kerr, hosted an open house on the plans in Shirley that was hijacked by a raucous crowd who demanded a proper public hearing. Outside court this week, Kerr said, “There'll be less yelling today.”

At the meeting in Shirley Kerr answered questions from the crowd for over an hour. He insisted that the removal of the lands from the TFLs will not be reversed and that the company would be happy to withdraw its plans if the CRD withdrew its down zoning.

Really, he said, people should be taking their concerns to the provincial government not the company.

Many people have been doing that, but so far have not had a satisfactory response. No doubt the politicians will be hearing even more about the issue between now and the May 12, 2009 election, especially if the court overturns the CRD's bylaws.

The three-days of hearings in the case ended on September 18, with judge Robert Metzger expected to reserve his decision for some eight weeks.