The eye of Anne Saanich archive preserves 100-year-old photos. Page A3
NEWS: Community party in Saanich /A5 ARTS: Monster magic from Intrepid /A16 SPORTS: Rebellion at Rowing Canada /A19
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Gloves come off in fight to save tree Saanich files court injunction against Cadboro Bay residents Natalie North News staff
building permits on Sept. 28 due to problems with building sizes and property line setbacks, but not the potential poultry operation. “This is agricultural land reserve land, and the majority of the concerns that (Saanich) raised simply do not apply to ... farm uses,” Alexander said. Alexander said while Saanich’s lawyers appear to be of the opinion that a building permit should have been issued for the chicken farm, there are still concerns about permitted building sizes and setbacks.
At 69 years-old, Bob Furber is facing his first lawsuit. He’s baffled, shaken and turning into an insomniac, but he’s not ready to give up the fight – for a neighbourhood boulevard tree. Last Friday, Saanich served at least three residents of the Cadboro Bay area with a B.C. Supreme Court injunction to halt interference with the removal of a 30-metre Douglas fir near Telegraph Bay Road near Arbutus Road. “We were just dumbfounded to be served with those documents,” Furber said. “I feel I’m being bullied and I just don’t know how to react. It’s a terrible feeling.” Since the spring, Furber and a handful of Cadboro Bay residents, including Max Cowper-Smith and Furber’s wife, Jeanette Funke-Furber, have closely followed Saanich’s plan to remove the fir. The tree is infected with a fungus, and the Saanich parks department had deemed that it should be taken down, given its size and location in an area prone to high winds. Saanich had originally set the removal date as the end of August, but postponed the process twice, based on residents’ interest in gathering more information and keeping the towering tree in their neighbourhood.
PLEASE SEE: Family, Page A9
PLEASE SEE: Three reports, Page A6
Kyle Slavin/News staff
Gordon Alberg stands on the property he owns with his siblings at 1516 Mount Douglas X Rd. Saanich council twice rejected the family’s plans to develop housing on the land, so the Albergs now plan to build a large poultry farm.
Landowner feeling henpecked Technicalities delay poultry farm in Gordon Head
Kyle Slavin Reporting
The chickens aren’t coming home to roost, yet. A Saanich family’s plan to open a chicken farm on their agricultural land has hit a stumbling block at the municipal level. Gordon Alberg said his hands were tied after Saanich council twice denied his family’s request to developing housing on property at 1516 Mount Douglas X Rd. So the family – Gord and his
siblings Don Alberg and Florence Davis – went the route council suggested, and proposed a poultry operation that would house 12,000 birds in four barns. Saanich’s planning department has now denied the family building permits, which Alberg says is all politics. “They’re trying to have jurisdiction over it,” he said of his property, which is protected in the provincial agricultural land reserve but now sits astride a number of residential neighbourhoods south of Mount Doug Park. Alberg hired a lawyer, John Alexander, after Saanich staff denied
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