When Jerry and Maureen Haldeman took over the six acres near No. 2 Road and Moncton Street 47 years ago, they claim it was "vacant land" and certainly "not farmable."
Fast forward 42 years and the Haldemans became embroiled in what's now a five-year long dispute with the City of Richmond over the unauthorized operation of businesses on agriculturally zoned land.
For 30 years, the Haldemans have been landlords on the site to two small businesses - a taxidermist and a construction company - as well as running a small trailer park with five tenants.
And in all that time, the couple, along with business partner Larry Fix, said it has been paying business class property taxes, despite the fact the city is refusing to issue them a licence to operate the businesses.
The feud has led to the city taking the Haldemans to court, where they're charged with unlawfully storing vehicles and operating businesses on agriculturally zoned land and allowing businesses to operate without a licence.
At the heart of the battle, according to the couple, is whether or not the six-acre parcel of land is at all farmable and whether it should even be zoned "AG1" (agricultural use).
"The city is trying to shut us down, saying the land is AG1 and should be farmed; yet it's quite happy to take the more lucrative business taxes off us," said Jerry Haldeman.
"When we bought this land 47 years ago, it was just sitting vacant and was derelict, it wasn't even a farm. But somewhere along the line, someone has drawn a map and decided this was to be in the Agricultural Land Reserve. But we were here long before the ALR was put in place."
The Haldemans do rent out four acres of adjacent land to a local farmer, but even he has trouble growing crops on it, according to Haldeman.
"To test the theory, I brought in some proper soil in the spring of 2012 and tried to grow some raspberries and garlic (on the six-acre site)," he said.
"But the success was very limited and we also allowed some community gardeners in there in 2011, but they didn't have much success either. It's not good farmland and it doesn't make any business sense for anyone to farm it."
The Haldemans were due in Richmond Provincial Court last week to face the charges, but the case has been put off until the end of the month in the hope a resolution can be found between the parties. The city acknowledged the court action but can't comment on the matter in detail, as it's before the court.
Meanwhile, Haldeman said he doesn't hold out much hope for any kind of middle ground being found with the city.
