The spectacular waterfront and beaches are spoken for, but bids have started for another 1,861 hectares of Western Forest Products land on southwest Vancouver Island.
The Capital Regional District announced last week that, with the help of fundraising through The Land Conservancy, $18.8 million would be spent buying 2,300 hectares of the high-profile recreational land WFP put up for sale.
The deal, to be finalized this summer, includes areas such as Sandcut Beach, the Jordan River surfing beach and townsite, areas to the north of Sooke Potholes regional park and parcels that will add to the buffer around Greater Victoria's water catchment area.
The decision came after three years of community and local government outrage in the wake of the province allowing WFP to remove 12,000 hectares from TFL 25 on southern Vancouver Island without paying compensation or dedicating parkland.
All the property the CRD hopes to buy is former TFL land, but some is private timberland and was not included in parcels WFP previously put on the market.
The remainder of the land earmarked by WFP as suitable for "higher and better use," meaning development rather than forestry, is being sold by the Unique Properties team of Colliers International.
There is "considerable interest" in the 34 titles up for sale, Mark Lester, Unique Properties senior vice-president, said yesterday. Bids have been accepted for several weeks, but no response was made until yesterday, he said.
"We will now start considering offers," he said.
Most is in upland areas above Jordan River, Jacob Creek and Muir Creek, as well as 10 parcels in the community of Shirley.
"We are simply selling it as is, where is, with whatever the existing zoning is. We would expect people might buy some of this land to hold -- it's a very attractive, interesting area -- and others might just want to build a house there," Lester said.
Although there is wide praise for the CRD's effort, many are hoping for a revival of a University of B.C. proposal to buy the entire remaining area as a demonstration forest, and there is lingering anger that there has been no commitment from the province.
"Hats off to the CRD and shame on the provincial government for not stepping up and trying to right the wrong they committed in the first place," said Shirley resident Terri Alcock.
There is still no plan to protect watersheds and drinking water, sensitive ecosystems or wildlife corridors, she said.
"I feel good about what has been accomplished, but I am afraid the emphasis will leave because we have had a partial victory," Alcock said.
A group of young people did their best to keep the pressure on government yesterday morning with a mock auction on the legislature's front lawn.
"We had an auctioneer who auctioned off small bits of the lawn. Some (of those who 'bought') planted small gardens and trees and another wanted to start a uranium mining operation," said James Glickman, one of the organizers.
However, commissionaires did not like the idea and removed the plants, he said.
The sale of lands that should be public is not an issue which is going to go away, Glickman said.
"It's absurd that the public, regional government and conservation groups have to dig into their budgets and purchase lands that should never have been [WFP's] to sell," he said.
The company has said it needs to sell land with development potential to pay down debt. WFP reported last week that it had a net quarterly loss of $3.1 million on sales of $139.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2009.
However, the figures for the last six months of 2009 -- a loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $2.9 million -- is a huge improvement on the $31.9-million loss reported in the first six months of the year.
