A large farm property in a prominent location in East Delta will remain intact.
Delta council recently shot down a subdivision application for the former Robertson Cattle Company property in the 10800-block of Ladner Trunk Road, a location thousands of motorists pass by every day.
Currently not farmed, the site is now owned by Janada Group Holdings, which proposed splitting the just over 16-hectare (40-acre) property into two lots of nearly identical size. The applicant proposed building a new home on each of the lots and demolishing the existing farmhouse.
Council agreed with a staff recommendation that the proposal would not be consistent with Official Community Plan policies when it comes to maintaining or increasing agricultural parcel sizes.
Saying he didn't agree with the applicant's agrologist's report, which favoured the subdivision, Coun. Ian Paton told the Optimist Delta isn't backing down on its longstanding policy of not allowing splitting in most cases.
"Let's face it, the minute you take a farm property and supposing it's worth two-and-a-half million or three million dollars, or something like that, and you split it in half and build a brand new home on each half, suddenly you've created two parcels that are each worth three million," Paton said.
Paton, who in his younger days worked at the farm when it was owned by Bob Robertson, added the site is still good farmland.
The property has been making the news in recent years. Two years ago, a massive barn fire destroyed stored potatoes and equipment owned by the Hothi family that had been leasing the farm.
A couple of years earlier, Robertson put the land up for sale, saying he was forced to sell after the B.C. Supreme Court prohibited the storage of vehicles and boats on the property.
