Comparing Agriculture Land In The Peace To Delta In Fraser Valley Is Incorrect
It is hard to accept on one hand that the Agriclture Land Commission voted against removing 80 acres in Ft St John from the ALR , while on the other, 217 hectares (536 acres ) has been approved to be converted from farm land into urban development in the Delta area. The property in question in Delta has been farm land , it was owned by the Spetifore Farms before being sold into commercial interests.
Interestingly enough, there hasn't been the same rub with the ALR in seeing this major piece of property leave agriculture production. On the other hand, in Ft St John we have 80 acres that was sitting idle for the past 30 years being turned into an RV park and rodeo ground.
I'm not taking a position with respect to the landowner going ahead and developing the piece before receiving approval and that is probably what sent the Agriculture Land Commission over the edge. The land owner should have made certain that it was removed from the reserve before moving ahead with his project. But removed from the ALR to accommodate a much needed facility in Ft St John it should have.
In the matter of Pat Pimm, in the first instance trying to influence the Commission into taking the lands out of the ALR, folks that's his job to represent the people of his constituency as he did. He, along with the mayor of Ft, St. John, made a pitch on behalf of the proponent. Now if Pimm as Agriculture Minister tried to interfere with the appeal, different matter, but so far all we are hearing is that he had an employee call the ALR to find out what was happening with the property.
The folks (led by the NDP) that are seeking Christy Clark's head, haven't done much investigation about the ALR in BC because they would find that the majority of the land being put into the ALR is coming from northern BC , not exactly to be compared with the Fraser River Delta where 5000 hectares has been removed for urban development.
We in the north have been taking forest and turning it into agriculture land because it was a way to reduce stumpage fees. Some of that land is being turned into grazing land that will not support the kind of returns that would make it true agriculture land.
Yes the Taylor Flats area near Ft St John should not come out of the ALR . It is a prime growing area. Much of that land sits idle because the market to support the produce from that region is too far away and hence the inability to compete. That isn't the case of the of the latest land moving out of the agricultural reserve in the Delta area.
I for one don't agree with the Oil and Gas Commission getting the nod to look after agriculture land in the north, but we do need a new look on how we decide.
I'm Meisner and that's one man's opinion.
Comments
I don’t think we should subsidize developers that buy ALR land on the cheep and then without approval for a zoning change increase the lands value by using it for something entirely different. The guy up in Fort St John abused the system and should pay a mighty fine for it, otherwise it flies in the face of the very nature of an ALR.
So is he still paying ALR tax rates one wonders? I wonder what Sintich has to say about that lol. Is this just a matter of who has political influence? That is my take on it and I think its wrong, if he wanted to buy the land and develop it from something else he should have gone through the due process like everyone else.
From the interview I heard the developer was in the US, so is he even a Canadian, much less from the North, or a local to begin with? Or is this simply land arbitrage because he can get away with it. How does that help the ALR situation in BC?
And clearly this is a test of the system prior to the ALR being rolled into the Oil and Gas Commission. Oil men making a mockery of the ALR, so as to introduce fracking on ALR land? The thin edge of the wedge?
There are not ALR tax rates. If the land is in the ALR and is not farmed ( unless it is part of a farming operation ) it is taxed exactly the same as other rural land.
There is a preferential rate for land that is farmed but there are annual agricultural sales requirements per acre that are required in order to qualify for the farmland tax rate.
If people would look at how the land that the new Global Industrial Park on the North end of Boundry Road, went from farm, to lite industrial, you might get an insight into how the system works.
Seems to me some 700 acres went out of the ALR with little or no fanfare.
There is alot of miss conception about the ALR. A majority of the time when you develop land in the ALR that land does not automaticaly get taken out of the ALR. The exeption here is where there are other exlusive rights that trump ALR regulations. If someone wants to develop their “property” within the ALR The developer will have to put together an application to the AL Comission and most often will have to put up reclamation security and have a long reclamation plan in place that either matches or improve the agricultural value before the proposal was developed. I would speculate the case in the news out of Fort St John where the farmer wanted to develop a rodeo ground, wasnt happy with the process and didnt want to put up a reclamation plan or security. The key goal with any development in ALR is to retain soil and not contaminate ALR lands for future use.
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