Small secondary homes could be allowed on some protected farmland.
Farms about 100 acres (40 hectares) in size or smaller that are in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) and have a modest-sized house could have a secondary home, if approved by the local municipality, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries announced Monday.
Shortly after the announcement, Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie said he was concerned about small farm properties in Richmond asking for secondary homes, taking away the limited agricultural potential they have.
Richmond has a plethora of small ALR plots, some just half an acre in size.
Furthermore, Brodie would like to see the secondary home decision-making power lie with the ALC where it’s traditionally been – not with the city.
“It increases the pressure on the local government to allow (these small homes),” Brodie said, adding “the conventional, traditional process would be better.”
In 2018, Richmond city council limited the size of homes in the ALR to 4,300 square feet, smaller than the 5,400 square feet allowed by the province, in the face of increasing house sizes and soaring farmland values.
Dozens of mega-mansions – some up to 20,000 square feet with extensive landscaping – had already been built on Richmond ALR properties and some, approved prior to the house size limit was enacted, are still being built.
Secondary homes might not be an issue in other parts of the province, but it could cause land prices to rise once again in Richmond, said Laura Gillanders, spokesperson for Richmond FarmWatch.
“Here in Richmond, having an extra house – that’s not needed for farm use – would definitely fuel the speculation that we’ve seen in the past,” she said.
Gillanders said she would like to see Richmond revert back to a previous bylaw, which didn’t allow secondary dwellings on farms 20 acres or smaller.
“It should ideally go back to that,” she said.
Brodie said, given the announcement just came out, it’s too early to know the full impact of these new regulations, and he expects Richmond city staff to come back with more details for council.
Properties that are larger than 40 hectares (about 100 acres) and already have a large house on them, however, will be allowed a secondary home up to 2,000 square feet no matter the size of the principal house.
Properties smaller than 100 acres with larger homes would have to apply to the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) for a secondary home for farm use.
The changes in regulations come into effect Dec. 31.
