Open letter to Richmond council,
First of all, thank you for the hard work you do for the community –—Richmond is by far the best place to live in the Lower Mainland.
The other day, I read some comments made by Coun. Carol Day that were erroneous and disturbing — she showed a news photographer and a cameraman a very large house on a one-acre lot and intimated that farmers can cover up to 60 per cent of their land with housing.
Not only was this false, but extremely misleading to the public. Ms. Day told me that the purpose of this new regulation is to reduce the size of farm houses and get those guys who are taking advantage of property tax loopholes.
I say let the B.C. government determine who is a farmer and who is not.
The 50-metre rear building limit from the front of the lot already restricts the size of the house. Side set backs apply — the width of the lot only will dictate the size, not the depth.
Bonafide farmers should be allowed to build a home that suits their needs.
They have worked hard to keep our farmland viable in spite of the high costs.
The BC Assessment Authority regulates and determines who is entitled to farm status and who is not. Ms. Day tells me that all the farmers have to do is sell $1,500 worth of production and then they are granted farm status.
If that’s really the problem — then why not go to the province and have those minimum production amounts changed
If you are disappointed that some people have taken advantage of the regulations and have managed to build very large homes, use your bylaws or change them to give you the legal power you need to shut these guys down — they’re clearly not farmers and have no interest in farming.
The people that you should be listening to now, in order to determine what is fair for the farmers, are the farmers themselves — the people that actually farm the land — the people that have huge investments in their farmland, homes and buildings.
Farmers who decide that they want to upgrade their homes — increase the size of their homes for whatever reasons — should be entitled to do so.
People who have abused the system and who are not farmers should be dealt with — but not at the expense of actual farmers.
Please consider the farmers’ side carefully; please don’t put development permit applications in their path — this is not only time-consuming for your staff, but a nuisance and costly for the farmers.
Please let us build to our needs.
Doug Kavanagh
Richmond
