The town of Peachland is squabbling with a Baptist church over plans for a new firehall and residential development.聽
Municipal officials want to buy the church鈥檚 property but the religious leaders say the municipality has been lowballing them and are 鈥渟hocked and disheartened鈥 that the town has taken the dispute public to try to force a sale.聽
It is an unusual move for a local government to signal its intentions to buy a specific property, for the obvious reason such disclosure could lead to a dramatic increase in the asking price. But Peachland Mayor Patrick Van Minsel suggests the town had no choice because of intransigence on the part of the church.聽
鈥淭he District of Peachland has invested a great deal of time and attention to the new firehall project. The request to the Baptist Church is not being made frivolously and our need has not changed now that the church has announced its opposition,鈥 Van Minsel said Friday.聽
鈥淲e have been as transparent as possible when dealing with land negotiations and discussions. Council鈥檚 pillar is open government, and we are committed to keeping the public informed,鈥 he said.聽
Town officials are eyeing a site near the corner of Highway 97 and 13th Street for the new firehall. It already owns some land near the corner, but says a dramatic run-up in projected construction costs has forced the need to acquire more land for a partnership with a private company that would involve the construction of a currently unspecified number of units, likely in the form of a tall building.聽
The Baptist Church owns an adjacent property, valued at $764,000, and the town has been trying to buy the property for several years. With those talks not succeeding, the town took the unorthodox move Thursday of saying it had been trying to buy the church for the firehall, which would also include offices for citizens patrol and a paramedics base.聽
That prompted a swift response from church leaders who accused the town of having been 鈥渁ggressively鈥 and 鈥渃ombatively鈥 trying to buy their land for nearly two years. Despite what the town is saying publicly, pastor Lyle Wahl says the municipality鈥檚 plans for the site, as revealed in a request for proposals from builders, include a new town hall and commercial space.聽
鈥淚 understand that they would like to create new offices for town bureaucrats, and our spot probably looks like a great place to build them, but it doesn鈥檛 seem right that a charitable organization which has served the community for 120 years should subsidize this plan on land we own and don鈥檛 wish to leave,鈥 said church pastor Lyle Wahl.聽
The town is proposing to buy the land and relocate the church to an unidentified piece of municipal property. The church鈥檚 propers is valued at $764,000, most of which is in the land, but Wahl says a 鈥渓ike-for-like鈥 replacement of building and land would cost almost $4 million.聽
- This story replaces an earlier version which did not include comments from church leaders.聽