Bad reviews sink Lake Errock film studio project

There will be no film production studio built in tiny old Lake Errock after locals gave the project two (dozen) thumbs down.

A Coquitlam-based company has dropped its plans to build a film studio, with the owner citing “mistrust, anger and miscommunication.”

More than two years ago, Sean O’Reilly and his company, Arcana Studios, applied to the Fraser Valley Regional District to build what it declared to be a “director’s retreat” on a five-hectare property overlooking Harrison Bay.

The plans were to relocate an existing home, and build a 13,700-square-foot sound stage and 5,000-square-foot studio. Arcana created special effects-dependent films and the studio would allow for scenes to be shot indoors. For intensive filming days, the company said more than 100 workers might end up on site.

The local community took notice of the plans. Dozens objected to the proposal, expressing concerns about their scale and the potential for noise, the impact on traffic, parking, and potential tree-clearing. Some expressed concerns about the disposal of sewage waste from dozens of workers.

After a series of public information hearings, the company resubmitted its application. Instead of applying for a type of residential zoning, the Fraser Valley Regional District—which governs the area—created a new film production zone just for the project.

But on Feb. 9, O’Reilly sent the FVRD a letter yanking his plans and decrying the public’s involvement in the project.

“It is with much consideration, and a heavy heart, that I am officially withdrawing my application,” O’Reilly wrote in the letter, which was included in the agenda for an FVRD meeting this week. “I'm happy to discuss the reasons for this after spending around $75,000 and three years, but I think you know the majority of them. The level of mistrust, anger and miscommunication (we never were applying for commercial zoning being the most frustrating) ultimately led to this decision.”

Although his company had declared the property would include a sound stage and be a working film studio, O’Reilly focused in his letter on the fact that he had originally applied for residential zoning. (The original R6 zone permitted film production uses.)

“The process of applying for a residential zoning application somehow gave the community a sense of entitlement to 'vote' on how many people I can have on my property, how many trees I can take down and even lawsuits were discussed over a 'rezoning application,'” O’Reilly wrote. “There were complaints that 'contruction trucks' [sic] will go down Bayview, which has nothing to do with whether it's a movie studio or a new house.”

O’Reilly wrote that he hopes to eventually build his dream house on the lot, but that he is worried that the community will “overstep ‘telling me’ what I can, and cannot, build which I will (clearly) adhere to all zoning bylaws going directly to the FVRD.”