Large-scale plans for the Garden City Lands are before Richmond council this week and they include a lookout tower, a barn, accessible walkways, service roads and public art.
The 55-acre parcel in central Richmond is in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) so staff have prepared a comprehensive application to the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) to develop the park into a farming-focused, publicly accessible park.
Council will discuss it at Monday’s general purposes meeting and decide whether to send the application to the ALC, which has the ultimate authority on how the lands are used.
Part of the plan is to host an annual Farm Fest-type of event as well as to hold farmers’ markets weekly or bi-weekly.
One feature will be an “agriculture and ecology centre” which will support on-site farming as well as interpretation activities.
Currently, Kwantlen Polytechnic hosts its farm school on the western side of the property.
Large portions of the property are bog and the city is proposing to build boardwalks for walking throughout.
The plan also includes three parking lots. To build the parking lots as well as washrooms and other amenities, 9,570 cubic metres of soil will need to be deposited on the property.
