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Petition aims to preserve a parcel of forest in East Sooke

The 67-acre lot borders the East Sooke Regional Park
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East Sooke residents are rallying behind one woman’s call for the Capital Regional District to buy a large plot of land on the border of East Sooke Regional Park. (File - Sooke News Mirror)

East Sooke residents are rallying behind one woman’s call for the Capital Regional District to buy a large plot of land on the border of East Sooke Regional Park.

The 67.9-acre lot at 154 Copper Mine Road is “one of the last large parcels of land” in the area and was listed on Jan. 28 for $2.5 million, according to the listing on REMAX’s website.

The area is undeveloped forest land, but the property listing says the land could be re-zoned from its current rural residential – that would allow for 11 two-acre lots with road connection – to RR-6A zoning, which would halve the minimum lot size requirement to one acre.

“The possibilities are endless and the ability to create amazing homes is just waiting for you,” reads the listing.

That prospect of development led East Sooke resident Natalia Day to start a change.org petition, which has 479 signatures, to ask the CRD to buy the land to prevent it from being developed and connect it to the neighbouring East Sooke Regional Park. Day moved to the area a year ago from Victoria having visited the park many times.

“It’s a spot you can go that’s close to town where you feel like you’re just in the middle of the wild. The whole East Sooke Peninsula is just magic.”

Day has concerns about the impacts any potential future development would have on the community for humans, but also for wildlife.

“By cutting that 67-acre portion of land out and eliminating it as wilderness, we’re going to have a lot of really confused predators on our hands, which costs everybody.”

Andy Orr, spokesperson for the CRD said they don’t comment on individual purchases, but that the CRD is always looking for plots of land to purchase for parks and makes decisions based on a number of factors, including access to nearby trails, parking and its connection to contiguous wildlife habitat.

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@moreton_bailey


bailey.moreton@goldstreamgazette.com

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