Aquilini Renewable Energy will meet Thursday’s deadline to submit additional technical information about its proposal to recycle industrial waste in Christina Lake, but the required community consultation remains only partially complete, according to the regional district.

CEO John Negrin called RDKB planning manager Marc Andison late last week to advise that the requested reports would arrive by March 11. That deadline was set in late October in response to ongoing community concerns about the proposal, which first surfaced in September 2008.

Though Negrin has attended one public meeting to gather questions from Christina Lake residents, he has not yet returned with any answers.

Certainly, by holding just the one community meeting, the company has not done everything it was asked to do, Andison said. Negrin told him a decision was made not to return for more discussion with the public.

“But we’ll see what they’ve got and will present it with a staff report.”

That report and information will go first to Area C’s advisory committee for discussion and a recommendation on April 6, then to the regional district’s planning and development committee on April 15, before finally landing on the board of directors’ desk for a decision on April 29.

“Obviously, we feel that the regional district should reject (Aquilini’s submission) and we should get on with life,” said Richard White, who leads the vocal Protect Christina Lake group, which is opposed to the proposal.

“The regional district has stated that (community consultation) is part of the process. They shouldn’t be allowed to extend the deadline. . . . We’ve had no information from (the company) and that should be a telling tale to the regional district,” White said.

Protect Christina Lake will be preparing its own counter submission to the Area C advisory committee and RDKB. While White said the group will review any information Aquilini provides, the community is clearly opposed to the concept of petroleum recycling in the resort community, so he doesn’t see any info swaying many minds.

Meanwhile, concerns raised by some residents that the lingering proposal has impacted the local real estate market is leaving the Kootenay Real Estate Board’s chief number cruncher skeptical.

“What affected real estate values over the last year . . . was the national and international economic climate,” said Ian Mason, the board’s executive officer, who noted that areas heavy on recreational property in many communities took a hit in 2008 and 2009, and will generally be slower to recover than the rest of the market.

Christina Lake is included in the 2009 real estate numbers for rural Grand Forks property, which saw 35 per cent of detached homes put on the market sell in both 2008 and 2009. That could be part of a trend, which sees the listing-to-sales ratio fall from a high of 92 per cent in 2005, to 53 per cent in 2006 and 47 per cent in 2007. Three more houses (compared against 2007) were put on the market in 2008, and 17 fewer in 2009.

The average sale price rose annually from approximately $321,000 to $393,000 in 2008, before falling to $302,000 in 2009.

Area realtors contacted Tuesday were not willing to provide public comment.

Aquilini Renewable Energy tackled a RDKB zoning change as the first step of a project to recycle petroleum-related wastes into fuel, carbon and potable water, and later break down construction wastes and old cars into gas, solid aggregates and metals.

The land in question is zoned for a variety of industrial uses, but the current zoning explicitly excludes the manufacture, processing, refining and mixing of petroleum products.

The site is located where Highway 395 meets Ponderosa Drive, 3.5 kilometres south of Christina Lake toward the U.S. border.