The District’s application to remove land from the ALR for construction of a new Firehall contains erroneous and misleading information.

This application states that “The District seeks to replace the existing firehall that was constructed in 1950.” The original Metchosin Firehall, located at 4440 Happy Valley Road, was constructed between 1960 and 1961* as a two-bay, concrete block structure. Significant additions, including a new three-bay apparatus building and a hose tower, were added to the site in 1996** built to the seismic requirements of the day.

* Cited dates vary depending upon which document you reference.

Several Metchosin residents communicated concerns directly to the Agricultural Land Commission regarding the proposed Firehall replacement project's non-agriculture use of ALR land. Four sample letters are provided here. Because these letters were not communicated to the ALC in a way that brought them into the broader public domain, personal details of the writers have been redacted on this website.

A question on the application is: “Do you need to import any fill to construct or conduct the proposed non-farm use?” The answer given was “No”.

Existing soil will likely need to be removed from high water table areas and replaced with permeable material. See site photos below and right.

  ** Skyline Engineering Structural Services Project 12044.02 Report, page 2, Apr 22, 2025.