Trustee Christine Torgrimson has come out against a rezoning application to permit construction of a new Salt Spring Coffee Company roasting facility at 1501 Fulford-Ganges Road.

“I just can’t shake this feeling that this is simply the wrong location for this business, as green as it is and as valuable as it is for the island,” Torgrimson said at Thursday’s local Trust committee meeting.

Torgrimson cited outstanding odour concerns, the large number of covenants, and the threat of commercial and industrial sprawl in the rural neighbourhood as her main reasons for opposing the application.

“I’ve seen [sprawl], I’m sick of it, I don’t want to see it here,” she said.

She said permitting the facility in the proposed location would only “create ongoing conflict, ongoing hardship and unhappiness.”

“I know [the applicant] worked really hard and maybe some bright light will shine and I will change my mind, but I don’t think so,” she said. “I’ve thought about this a lot.”

She encouraged the applicant to find another island location for their facility.

“If they truly love the island as they say they do, if they treasure the Salt Spring Island brand, they care about their island workers and families and are sincerely committed to doing the right thing in as many ways as possible, they will work towards finding another property here that is more suitable to their needs and desires and more compatible with the nature of that particular place on the island,” Torgrimson added.

She acknowledged environmental studies and peer reviews confirming the operation’s environmental impact would be negligible.

According to a staff report presented at last week’s monthly local Trust committee meeting, 17 covenants have been proposed to control the proposed facility’s operating practices.

Despite trustee Torgrimson’s opposition to the application, trustees voted unanimously to have Islands Trust staff examine the feasibility of and enforcement mechanisms for the covenants.

A report is expected in time for the Salt Spring LTC’s August meeting.

Fellow trustee George Ehring stated that he is still undecided about the matter and would like more time to assess information ahead of a possible public hearing.

“This shows you that we don’t work things out together because I did not know this was coming,” Ehring said, following Torgrimson’s announcement. “For me, the balls are still in the air.”

The Salt Spring Coffee Company application dates back to early 2008. The company seeks to rezone a rural property that would allow a 13,000-square-foot two-storey building housing the company’s roasting unit, administrative offices and tasting area.

According to the application, the proposed building will meet the highest environmental standards and the property will feature a 5,000-square-foot greenhouse for food production, and rainwater-catchment system, among other sustainable-design elements.

Ehring said the scale of investment the company is ready to make for such a stellar environmental project is among the reasons he has not reached a decision.

“This is exactly the kind of catalyst project that so many people in the community talked about when we were doing the [official community plan] review,” he said. “That is why it doesn’t fit inside the box.”

“We want to be the kind of place that embraces this kind of vision, but I don’t know how we can get there,” he added.

Speaking in response to Thursday’s events, company spokesperson George Grams said the company’s owner intends to continue the application process.

“We are not inclined to give up,” he said. “We have to expose this for its incompetence and lack of vision.”

Grams said Thursday’s announcement by trustee Torgrimson frustrates the Salt Spring Coffee Company’s 13-month effort to bring a workable proposal to the table.

He called the turn of events a “manifest failure of the system.”

In an open letter to the Islands Trust written after the meeting (and published in a full-page ad in this issue of the Driftwood), Grams said the Trust needs to establish a clear-cut mechanism to assess applications in a way that is ”methodical, documented, verifiable and transparent.”

Company president Mickey McLeod is currently in Peru and not available for comment.