An island-based company has unveiled its plan to build one of the largest pot production facilities in the country in rural Central Saanich.

Licensed producer Evergreen Medicinal Supply is in the process of buying 98 acres of farmland from the Stanhope Dairy Farm, with plans to build 21 greenhouses on the property to grow cannabis.

Health Canada has already approved construction for the first 150,000-square-foot greenhouse, which will cost $25-million to build.

Evergreen founder and CEO Shawn Galbraith says the facility will rank among the largest licenced grow-ops in Canada.

"These greenhouses are modular in construction, so that allows us to build a single greenhouse and have it approved by Health Canada," said Galbraith. "We will seek additional approvals for an additional 20 buildings, and all these buildings are about the same size."

The total project size will be a whopping three-million square feet of floor space and cost upwards of $500 million.

While the company says the facility will generate jobs and revenue, not everyone living near the farmland wants to see it built.

"It should be farmland, period. It should be used for farmers," said Frans Winkel, a pig farmer who owns land adjacent to the proposed facility. "Even if they cut it up in smaller pieces for young farmers who want to experience farming, who have a cow, who raise a pig or raise a couple chickens. That's what it's all about."

Galbraith disagreed, saying the facility will give a boost to the local economy.

"I think it's an excellent use of the valley," he said. "I think that to be able to generate billions in revenue, literally thousands of jobs, just from one 100-acre site, I could think of no better way to use this land."

The property is designated under the Agricultural Land Reserve, but the ALR does not have authority over how it's used.

The previous Liberal provincial government approved ALR land for growing medical cannabis.

The project still requires Central Saanich council to approve a permit for its construction, something that will be considered in the new year.