Dear Editor,
People in the Lower Mainland must be getting tired of reading about the housing affordability crisis and the attack on farmland from mega-homes, speculation and many other non-farm activities.
The two issues are linked. They are the result of a growing and changing population in this part of B.C.
I live on Blundell Road in East Richmond. The couple of blocks that make up my neighborhood have seen numerous small farm lots of 0.5 to 1.5 of an acre taken up with very large homes. Usually there are at least two or three per year. This year there are eight large homes under construction.
Most of these small AG1-designated lots have never been farmed and now, with large homes on them, they never will be. If these homes last 30 or more years, will they then be demolished and a hobby farm will suddenly appear?
Small farm lots in the Agricultural Land Reserve are a complete fiction. The Agricultural Land Commission does not require lots of less than two acres to be farmed. So why are they in the reserve?
There will always be small-scale farming on small lots. However, the data shows that farming on less than two acres is more a passion and hobby than farming.
My two children cannot hope to enter the housing market in this part of B.C. They are among hundreds, if not thousands of young people who would like to remain where they grew up and own a place of their own.
This is how cities and communities are supposed to develop, with each generation surpassing the previous one and further developing local culture.
The eight homes currently under construction on my part of Blundell Road will house eight families.
If I had my way, the small fictional and agriculturally useless lots that are all over Richmond and Surrey would be taken out of the ALR, rezoned for multi-family only and on my street, 32 to 36 families would have a place to live at an affordable price.
Paul Edwards
Richmond
