Council has previously refused to allow three properties in east Richmond to be pulled out of the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), but the owners are giving it another go.
The three exclusion applications for the properties on Burrows Road, just east of No. 6 Road, are being submitted by the three different owners. Each property, at 14540, 14680 and 14920 Burrows Road, is about five acres in size.
Exclusion applications for these properties were submitted in 1988 and 1997 – the 1988 was withdrawn before council considered it. The 1997 application was to pull the properties out of the ALR so they could be used as industrial properties – council refused to forward it to the Agricultural Land Commission, which makes the final decision on pulling land out of the ALR.
One of the property owners has complained about drainage issues on the property that has caused damage to the house.
The city asked for all the properties on Burrows Road to be removed from the ALR in 1986 when it was first developing its Official Community Plan (OCP). This was rejected by the ALC and later the city designated the area as farmland.
The staff recommendation is to not forward the application to the ALC because they say it doesn’t support farming and there is no benefit to agriculture in the exclusion application.
The item is on the agenda for next week's planning meeting.
It would also need Metro Vancouver to change its designation of the properties as “agriculture” in the Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy.
The applications were submitted by JNA Holdings, Karl, Lydia and Ulrich Wacker and Shorewood Developments.
