By ROY WOOD

Town staff will go back to the drawing board after a property owner seeking to buy or lease a parcel of town land complained that the terms demanded by the town are unreasonable.

Dan Friesen, a principal in FourPharm Ventures, told council Tuesday that his company is interested in buying or long-term leasing four small lots on two sides of his building at 291 Fairview Road. He wants the properties to provide parking for the retail businesses in his building.

He said he and his business partner bought the Fairview property in 1993 and would like to sell it. But, without a secure supply of parking, no one is interested in buying. Friesen is seeking to buy the land or secure a long-term lease that won’t be subject to cancellation in 10 years, as is his current agreement with the town.

Following his approach last year, the town contracted A-1 Appraisals of Kelowna to assess the value of the land. According to Friesen, the company used a downtown Kelowna property as a comparable and, as a result, ended up with an exaggerated valuation of the lots.

A-1 appraised the land at $216,000. Friesen pointed out that the assessed value of the land for tax purposes is just $135,000 and the appraisal from A-1 is “way out of whack,” leading to an inflated annual lease cost of $8,400.

Friesen was told that he is entitled to hire someone to do another appraisal and bring that forward.

Also at issue is a $7,200 “commencement fee,” which several members of council said they had never heard of before and wondered why it would be applied.

Further complicating matters is the fact that the town’s agricultural irrigation siphon in under one of the properties, making it ineligible for purchase. Friesen said he would be willing to lease the property containing the siphon and buying the rest. Staff was directed to investigate further, to continue to negotiate with FourPharm and then to return to council.