Although the Ministry of Defence organised the meeting with residents in the middle of a working day, the Sece Cultural Centre hall was full. Business owners, landowners, hunters and others affected by the plan to create the Sēlija military training area had many questions for the Ministry's representatives.

In the first phase of the training area development, it is planned to expropriate 12 real estate properties. Owners are uncertain about how this will take place and how the compensation amount will be calculated.

Zigmunds Avens, a board member of the hunting club “Gambija”, pointed to the hunting collective’s investments in improving the property: “At the moment, we have a house that has undergone renovation, a major overhaul, there are two outbuildings, and a cellar. Last autumn, December, January, we connected electricity, and there is an artesian well. And what that compensation is—there is actually no clarity as to whether we can set up a new place or if we cannot for that amount.”

Residents whose properties are located next to the planned training area are also concerned.

Tālis Bērziņš is worried about whether the nearby training area will in some way negatively affect his properties and their value: “A training area, a military structure, creates various types of pollution, one of which is noise. For a property that might be valued on the market, sold to people who want to live there and stay close to nature, those qualities for them are affected, reduced. Therefore, the value drops. That is an aspect about which I am not hearing any kind of comments, how they are being valued, or if they are being compensated.”