Richmond Country Farms is applying to allow five buildings to house seasonal farm workers – after they’ve already been built.
Twenty-six seasonal farm labourers have accommodations on the farm’s properties, located on Steveston Highway and Rice Mill Road, but they haven’t been approved by the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) nor do the buildings have building permits.
Richmond Fire-Rescue inspected the buildings in 2022, and while there were no safety concerns, it was identified the farm never received permission from the city nor the ALC to build the homes.
At a recent planning meeting, there was no opposition to forwarding the application to the ALC, with Coun. Andy Hobbs noting a lot of farmers depend on seasonal farm workers.
“It’s not just supportive of farming and agriculture, it’s actually essential,” Hobbs said. “We probably have a shortage of this kind of housing in Richmond to support agriculture.”
The site also has to be rezoned by city council to allow the buildings.
Normally, seasonal farm accommodations are allowed on properties that have an existing home, but the two properties under consideration don’t.
Furthermore, seasonal farm accommodations are supposed to be in one building. However, there currently are four modular homes, 960 square feet in size, and a cabin that’s 600 square feet, that house the farm workers.
Richmond Country Farms owns 400 acres throughout Richmond and in the Okanagan.
The properties being considered for rezoning and an ALR non-farm use are at 12900 Steveston Hwy. and 11311 Rice Mill Rd.
The application was made by Lucas Hogler on behalf of Harry Hogler and Richmond Country Farms.
Got an opinion on this story or any others in Richmond? Send us a letter or email your thoughts or story tips to [email protected].
