AUGUST 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC
Aquilini seeks exclusion for former nursery Industrial space and farmers’ market planned for Maple Ridge
by RONDA PAYNE
MAPLE RIDGE – Maple Ridge council has approved a bid by Aquilini Investment Group to seek exclusion of 56 acres of former nursery land near the corner of the Golden Eagle Way and 203rd Street from the Agricultural Land Reserve. Two years ago, council rejected
Aquilini’s vision for an industrial park on the land, which it acquired from the Pelton family in 2015. Aquilini revamped its vision after public consultations this spring and came back with a new proposal and formal application for exclusion. Council approved the current plan and application on June 26 in large measure because it includes a land swap that will see 56 acres in Pitt Meadows currently planted to blueberries put into the ALR. Besides building a business park and film studio, Aquilini will also allocate a portion of the site to the University of the Fraser Valley for a food innovation centre with classrooms and incubator farm, while the proposed industrial development will offer a permanent home for the Haney Farmers’ Market, including storage and processing space. “[Aquilini vice-president] Jimmy Chu spent months and months building the case,” explains Maple Ridge councillor Craig Speirs. “They
want to make the case for an exclusion, so they were offering all kinds of stuff.”
While all of council considered the
latest proposal to be a step above the original, made by the Pelton family in 2010, Speirs and fellow councillor Kiersten Duncan voted against it. “They’ve addressed a lot of needs that apply to the community and I can see that,” Speirs says, “but I can’t support that.”
Duncan said it didn’t send the right message to other farmers. “This is going to set a precedent and I don’t feel that it’s worth the loss,” she says.
Application denied When the Peltons sought an
exclusion for a portion of the 200-acre property in 2010, the application included 160 acres. Maple Ridge approved it for consideration by the Agricultural Land Commission, which rejected it. The family sold a portion of the property to Aquilini in 2015, which approached council with its own vision. Speirs feels the owners will continue to seek an exclusion until they’re successful. The argument hinges on the fact that because the land was a former tree nursery. The damage incurred from driveways, trucks and concrete has allegedly made it unproductive.
Chu, in his presentation to council, referred to an agrology report that states the land isn’t suitable for soil- based agriculture. Annette LeBox, a resident of the community and environmental activist, feels otherwise. “The billionaire Aquilini family, aka,
Golden Eagle Farm Group, have gone to great trouble to sweeten the pot to Maple Ridge council to persuade them to send their application onto the Agricultural Land Commission,” she says. “Aquilini Group also claimed that the land is no good for farming. Again, this is false. There are drainage problems and concrete slabs on the property, but these issues could easily be mitigated.” LeBox fears that if the land commission approves the application, it would prompt further land speculation and a loss of farmland to industrial or residential uses. She says the Aquilinis are reportedly offering to buy up other farms east of the property along 128th Avenue. Another city resident, Eric
O’Connor, supports the proposal. “We have done everything at great expense attempting to skirt around our farmlands within the ALR, even if the said ALR property is not being farmed but is sitting vacant,” he says. “At least with the Pelton lands, they are willing to put farmland back into the ALR that is actually being farmed.”
Maple Ridge mayor Nicole Read thinks the lands are “ideal for industrial” purposes, but Speirs objects. He says the location is ideal for farmland in that it is the “back entrance” to the community and adjacent to other farms. “Making changes in this area will
affect everything,” he says. “It will open the flood gates. Everybody knows we need accessible industrial land. I think we need accessible agricultural lands more.”
Inclusion application filed Maple Ridge's endorsement of the
proposal led Aquilini to submit an inclusion application July 17 for the property in Pitt Meadows. It has yet to file an exclusion application for the Pelton lands. ALC staff are also handling an application from another Aquilini company, 374907 BC Ltd., to store cranes on a parcel on Neaves Road in Pitt Meadows for the remainder of the year. The property is designated for blueberry production. Maple Ridge council considered
two other applications when it met June 26, both of which were unanimously turned down. These were for the 40-acre Davison farm on 128th Avenue and a 2.4-acre parcel in the midst of residential properties where neighbours had objected to a poultry farm proposal.
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