METRO VANCOUVER – Metro Vancouver has asked the provincial government to help curb a proliferation of mega-sized estate homes that continue to sprawl across the region’s prime agricultural land.
The issue was part of a discussion Thursday about the region’s draft food strategy.
Metro directors fear the large homes, some as big as 15,000 square feet on five- and 10-acre lots and often coupled with tennis courts, swimming pools and illegal secondary suites, will lead to the loss of valuable agricultural land for future food production.
“When you have huge mansions, you can’t do anything with that, and potentially that land will never be farmed again,” said Pitt Meadows Mayor Don MacLean, who also sits on Metro’s agricultural committee. “We don’t have an issue with estate homes – if they’re in the city. But we really think that if this continues we’ll lose critical mass for farming.
“If the ALR is there for a purpose, [the province] should be defending the uses of it.”
The B.C. Agriculture Ministry said it agrees with Metro’s concerns and last month released a draft discussion paper aimed at helping local governments regulate residential uses on ALR land.
The paper, considered by Metro’s agriculture committee Thursday, suggests limits could be applied to the size, scale and siting of the farm’s “home plate” – the footprint for residential uses and the house itself. A large house not only increases the cost of agricultural property – making it unaffordable for new farmers – but if it’s in the middle of the parcel, rather than at the front of the lot near the road or in a corner of the property, there’s less land available for farming.
Metro has asked staff to come back with recommendations on the home plate issue by March 3.
“We do share [Metro’s] concerns, particularly if large homes in a community can only be built in farming areas,” said Bert van Dalfsen, the agriculture ministry’s manager of strengthening farm programs. “We don’t want to have a lot of large homes on farmland.”
At the moment, Metro municipalities take an ad hoc approach when it comes to ALR land. Although Delta restricts homes in the ALR to the maximum size permitted in urban areas, others are at a loss when residents apply to build a mega home in the middle of a five-acre lot, an illegal suite over a barn or to cover prime farmland with a tennis court.
Yet any attempts to put restrictions in place are met with vocal opposition from residents, many of whom have built the larger homes for recreation or hobby farms.
Pitt Meadows, for instance, abandoned its plans to impose a home plate limit of 11,000 square feet on a 10-acre property after a public outcry. It has since approved a bylaw requiring all applications for secondary homes on ALR land to undergo an agrologist assessment to justify the claim that they’re needed to house farm workers.
“We have very, very good land and we want to maintain that land,” MacLean said, adding 85 per cent of Pitt Meadows is in the ALR. “People are looking at this as a property rights issue. We’re saying, “˜You’re in a special use area. If you tried to put up a home that went corner to corner to corner in Vancouver, somebody would come along and say you can’t have a permit for that.”
The province’s draft discussion paper agrees there is potential for a negative impact on agricultural land if it’s developed willy-nilly, noting large estate homes often include secondary homes for farm workers, parking lots, pools, tennis courts, multi-car garages, decorative landscaping and greenhouses.
“The ALR is often used for very large homes, secondary residences, and vacation or weekend recreation homes,” the draft paper notes, adding ALR land is often seen as a “default” for people who want a big home but can’t find space in the city.
It adds that since ALR land owners often do not farm, they don’t consider the impact of their residential uses on the long-term agricultural potential of the area.
Van Dalfsen, who noted farmers comprise only 1.5 per cent of B.C.’s population, said the increase in non-farming ALR landowners led to neighbourly conflicts, such as complaints from Vancouver urbanites who move to the country for the quiet and are later upset with the noise, dust and odour. Or from people complaining about non-farmers living on ALR land.
And while they are not required to farm, van Dalfsen, along with Metro directors, argues there has to be a way to protect agricultural land for active farming.
“Farmland is being developed and frittered away,” Richmond Coun. Harold Steves said. “I don’t mind a large house as long as it’s in the front of the property … but people were putting in residential uses like tennis courts and swimming pools on agricultural land.”
“Some are using the homes for extended families and some are for people who want a huge house and a million-dollar lifestyle,” Steves said. “Suddenly a five-acre farm is really desirable for a large house.”
Metro directors insist they are not opposed to more than one family living in an estate house as long as they’re working the land. But they take umbrage with two homes on ALR property if no one is farming.
Steves said he would like to see Metro follow Delta’s bylaw, which stipulates homes on 10 acres must not exceed 5,000 square feet and requires the home plate to have a maximum setback of about 200 feet from the road.
Richmond has denied at least a dozen residents a permit for a second residence, Steves said. But that municipality, Surrey, Pitt Meadows and Abbotsford have held off on developing their own municipal bylaws until they see Metro’s plan.
Surrey Coun. Linda Hepner said something has to be done. “You don’t want to see ag land chopped up into hobby farm pieces because that doesn’t make a viable ag industry,” she said.
MacLean said the Agriculture Land Commission has to step in. He noted ALR land is so expensive that two or three families are having to buy properties together and many can’t afford to farm anything but blueberries and cranberries.
Metro is also now considering buying and leasing farmland to young farmers to ensure a future food production in the region, he said. But “that’s only going to go so far before people start screaming.”
The suggestion is part of the region’s draft food strategy, which was also considered by the agriculture committee Thursday.
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