Stanhope Farm, once touted as a site for 21 high-security greenhouses for cannabis production, is back on the market for $12 million.
Evergreen Medicinal Supply had planned to buy the 97-acre farm in Central Saanich for cannabis production in glass and metal greenhouses.
“The sale did not complete. There is no current contract with Evergreen,” said Linsday Leblanc, a lawyer representing the Rendle family, owners of the farm.
“The property has been put up on the market for sale generally [with] no plans for what it might be used for by a new owner. The Rendles are looking at the future and possibly a retirement,” she said Friday.
Evergreen is a Health Canada licensed grower. Its proposal for the property sparked concerns from citizens worried about cannabis-growing structures on agricultural land.
They collected 1,400 signatures in a petition calling for marijuana-grow operations to be banned from protected farmland.
Last month, the province announced that it was giving municipalities and First Nations the ability to ban cannabis-production bunkers on land within the B.C. Agricultural Land Reserve.
Shawn Galbraith, chief executive for Evergreen, said he had no comment when contacted Friday.
The farm, overlooking the Martindale Valley at 6341 Old East Rd., includes four homes plus extensive outbuildings, said real estate agent Bill Walters. It has been in the family since the mid-1950s.
At any given time, 200 to 300 cattle are being raised on the property, he said.
Walters figures the farm would be attractive to farmers from the Lower Mainland because agricultural land prices here are lower. “It would make a great family business.”
Central Saanich Mayor Ryan Windsor said an application to deposit soil on the property was made in the winter. Staff requested more information and nothing else was received.
Large structures for growing cannabis indoors could affect drainage on farmland, he said.
