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Letter: Richmond city council buried a good idea

Dear Editor, I attended the planning committee meeting on Jan. 17 where the idea of launching a lengthy public consultation process regarding house sizes in the Agriculture Land Reserve was discussed.
Baines
Richmond resident John Baines said he was shocked to see the size and scale of this under-construction 22,000-square-foot home on agricultural land on No. 4 Road, just south of Steveston Highway. Richmond city councillors were, on Tuesday, expected to consider a move to restrict the size of such homes. Photo by Graeme Wood/Richmond News

Dear Editor,

I attended the planning committee meeting on Jan. 17 where the idea of launching a lengthy public consultation process regarding house sizes in the Agriculture Land Reserve was discussed.

It was pointed out that the time required for this consultation process would enable developers, in the meantime, to submit “mega home” proposals that must be approved under the current bylaws.

Coun. Carol Day suggested immediately passing a new bylaw that would substantially restrict house size by adopting the Ministry of Agriculture guidelines. This bylaw could be modified later based on feedback from the originally-planned public consultations.

Several farmers made presentations explaining why their extended, multi-generational families working on the farm would require a house larger than the maximum allowed under the Ministry of Agriculture guidelines.

Mayor Malcolm Brodie had the idea that they could apply for a zoning modification, allowing the larger house.

All of the councilors asked pertinent questions about how the process might work, but I had the impression that the myriad of responses tended to bury the two suggestions by Day and Mayor Brodie that could be the essential components of an immediate, meaningful response to the problem.

I hope that council can get it together to put forward a new bylaw at their meeting next Monday.

John Roston

Steveston