Tranquille awaiting ALC decision

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It’s been a pretty lazy summer out at the old Tranquille Farm.

Not because the company, which wants to restore the farm and surrounding property to its former glory, doesn’t want to do any work, but because the developer is waiting on the government bureaucracy.

More specifically, BC Wilderness Tours, the company behind the Tranquille on the Lake development, is waiting on a decision from the B.C. Agricultural Land Commission (ALC).

The developers want to take a portion of the property out of the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) to operate an outdoor boat-storage yard, a 115-stall RV park and a farm market for a two-year period beginning next summer.

The company is hoping to operate the park in an effort to raise money as it develops an overall neighbourhood plan.

“It’s a low-key summer where our focus is on the planning process,” said Tim McLeod, the development manager for Tranquille Limited Partnership.

“We want to start work on the planning side, with the view to do actual physical work next spring.”

If it all works out, McLeod said the development should get its approval by the fall.

City council gave its support to the ALR application, but the fate of the plan is ultimately in the hands of the ALC.

As part of the ALR application, the developer has also decided to scrap a plan to build a golf course.

In the meantime, the development is working with the city on a neighbourhood and comprehensive zoning plan.

That plan is expected to be in front of council at some point, but McLeod said the company is waiting on the ALR decision.

The development has been years in the making and could look different than first planned when the property is completely filled out 15 years from now.

The golf course is gone, but the idea of getting the farm up and running and turning it into a food-production centre still remains.

Before it became a prized development property, Tranquille on the Lake was home to a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients in the province, and later served as a facility for mentally ill patients.