APRIL 2017 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC Monster home


debate ramps up Farmers protest proposals to limit farm home size


by PETER MITHAM


RICHMOND – Hard-working farmers shouldn’t bear the brunt of municipal efforts to curb the size of homes on farmland, say growers who turned out en masse for a public hearing in Richmond on March 2. Two months after


Richmond council exempted agri-tourism from a ban on short-term rentals, it began a public consultation on how exactly to regulate the size of farm homes. But that approach stands to limit what legitimate farm owners can do without addressing the rampant misuse of farm properties – activities ranging from illegal dumping to drinking, gambling and prostitution. “Is there anything being done to stop these 20, 30, 40,000-square-foot homes from being used illegally right now?” asked Charan Sethi, a real estate developer who lives with his wife on a half- acre parcel in the Agricultural Land Reserve. The city needs to address the misuse of local homes before it addresses what kind of homes can be built, he said. “That’s where the bylaws


must kick in,” added Bhupinder Dhiman, whose family farms 10 acres of blueberries on No. 6 Road. “If that was addressed first, I guarantee you these houses would not have been built.”


Richmond mayor Malcolm


Brodie told Country Life in BC in January that he anticipated hiring extra bylaw enforcement officers if the city pinned down what kinds of homes it wanted to regulate. Terry Crowe, manager of


policy planning for Richmond, told open house participants in March that the city currently has a complaint- driven enforcement process. Dhiman told those attending the open house that bylaws needed to provide for the construction of large homes by farm families – provided they were farming the land. In his case, six people spanning three generations live in a single residence. Another grower whose extended family occupies a 10,500-square-foot residence also spoke up, saying these are not the properties the bylaw needs to target, but no South Asian family needs a 20,000-square-foot home. “But we’re being limited,” Dhiman said of the proposed limits on farmhouse size. Boards displayed at the public consultation outlined the options in other municipalities, ranging from 3,552 square feet in Delta (for properties less than 20 acres, which account for 93% of farm parcels in Richmond) to nearly 7,000 square feet in Maple Ridge, which adopted its limit last year. BC Ministry of Agriculture guidelines suggest


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CAROL DAY PHOTO


a size of 5,382 square feet. Participants also received a questionnaire asking them if they would favour limiting the residential portion of a farm parcel to various areas up to one acre, and if homes on local farmland should be one of a number of sizes up to 3,229 square feet. The questionnaire also invited participants to suggest their own size.


Questionnaires and other


feedback from the open house were due March 12, with staff collating and reporting the results to Richmond council in April with bylaw recommendations. All going well, the bylaw could head to public hearing in May. However, the heightened emotions visible at the open house underscore the


contentious nature of any move to limit farmhouse size in an environment where farmers face hurdles subdividing properties to allow other family members to farm them. Richmond is already heavily subdivided, with 75% of parcels being less than five acres. Recent decisions by the Agricultural Land Commission nixed bids by Mayberry Farms Ltd. and Mahal Farms Ltd. to subdivide properties on No. 7 Road for succession and business planning purposes. Mahal Farms owner


Kalvinder Mahal attended the hearing and said the property rights of farmers shouldn’t be limited any further. The concern is enough that many landowners are planning to form an association of


agricultural land owners to advocate for themselves.


Not just Richmond


The challenge of monster homes on farm properties isn’t limited to Richmond. Plans for restrictions are


taking shape in Pitt Meadows, where a 31,000-square-foot residence is proposed for a 33- acre lot on Ford Road. Chilliwack surveyed


residents regarding limits on home plate sizes in fall 2015 and councillors considered a proposal from city staff last summer. The proposal returned to staff for further work but Chilliwack long- range planning manager Karen Stanton says that staff will deliver a new report for council consideration in the coming weeks.


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