Salt Spring Coffee Company president Mickey McLeod said it will be hard to leave Saltspring Island, but last year the Islands Trust rejected his application for expansion. (CBC)

The owner of the Salt Spring Coffee Company says after 15 years on the island they are packing up and leaving for Vancouver because local officials rejected his plan to expand their facility.

President Mickey McLeod said it will be hard to leave the Gulf Island community on Saltspring Island, but last year the Islands Trust rejected his application for expansion.

That means about 10 employees on Saltspring Island who sort beans and package them in bags will either have to move to the mainland or lose their jobs.

"Leaving the island was a difficult decision, but we had to make it," said McLeod.

McLeod already has a roaster in Richmond but in the past, neighbours there also complained about the smell. Now he is hoping to move all of his roasting operations under one roof in Vancouver.

The company prides itself on being organic and sustainable and McLeod thinks it will be a good fit in Vancouver.

'We need to go as a company'

"The green initiatives the city of Vancouver is doing, we are very excited to be involved with. We support Vision Vancouver. I am a longtime friend of Gregor Robertson," said McLeod.

"We just want to be a part of a more vibrant coffee and sustainability green culture. You know, where we need to go as a company, and we are getting that support here," he said.

McLeod wouldn't say where in Vancouver the company will end up because the details haven't been finalized, but he hopes to move by summer.

Plans for the proposed roasting facility had included an organic garden, a coffee educational centre and more than 30 jobs for residents of the normally idyllic holiday island.

But residents had expressed concerns about odour from the roasting and possible environmental effects on Ford Lake, a nearby protected wetland.