It might get more expensive to bring in soil into Richmond.
A proposed update to the city’s soil deposit bylaw could include increasing security deposits by more than 10-fold, implementing a non-refundable volume fee – which would be higher for non-Richmond soils – and regulating non-farmland fill deposits.
Current bylaws regulate deposits in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) but the proposed bylaw, if approved by council, could limit how much and what kind of material can be brought onto non-farmland properties as well.
If approved, any proposal to bring in more than 600 cubic metres of material anywhere in the city will have to be approved by council.
The proposed bylaw also decreases the amount of soil deposited without a permit - currently 100 cubic metres - to only 14 cubic metres, which is about two truckloads.
A report going to next week's general purposes committee meeting notes that the current bylaws allow “some property owners to fill unabated, potentially impacting neighbouring lands.”
Staff are recommending raising the maximum security deposit for soil deposit and removal from $15,000 to $200,000, adding the current deposit fees might not provide adequate incentive “to respect permit conditions.”
Furthermore, the proposed bylaw would require those bringing in soil to pay a “volume fee” which would be higher if soil were brought from outside of Richmond.
While these fees would be the highest in the region, tipping fees in Richmond are also the highest in the region because of nearby large-scale development projects.
Fines for contravening the bylaw could be increased to a maximum of $50,000.
