The future of a Tsawwassen farm property has been uncertain for years, but now things appear to be coming to a head and residents are raising the alarm.
Site clearing work had begun on the 45-plus acre (18 hectare) farm in the 5700-block of 6th Avenue, bounded by the Southlands, 56th Street, the Beach Grove Golf course and a neighbourhood of single-family homes. The land had formerly been referred to as the Guichon property.
Now currently owned by a numbered company, a stop work order was imposed by the city this week after residents called municipal hall in angst.
Bylaw manager Hugh Davies confirmed there had been no development or soil deposit applications submitted but the owner had begun site preparation work, confirming to a bylaw officer that the plan was to construct a greenhouse.
“They were depositing soil there, gravel material on site. There was no soil deposit permit or development permit for the material that was being put on there. It’s zoned A1 agricultural, so you can’t bring material on site like that without a soil deposit, or at least a development, permit,” Davies told the Optimist.
“The owners have been advised what they need to do and the stop work order is in place. No further trucks are to go on there or any work on that property until that’s been resolved,” he said.
Adding to the situation is the property being listed for sale for $23.8 million, described as rezoning opportunity to residential.
While the property is currently zoned by the city as agricultural, it’s not in the Agricultural Land Reserve, something that’s been highlighted as a “builder and investor alert” in real estate listing by Royal Pacific Realty Corp.
“Rarely available 45.65 acre parcel for sale located on Tsawwassen. Zoned A1, potential to rezone to residential area. Property is excluded from ALR, no need Provincial ALC approval. Get in on the rapidly growing Tsawwassen. Current leased for $25,000/year. The lot is close to the new Tsawwassen Mills Shopping Mall, Southland development and Tsawwassen Shores development. Century group will be building 950 units nearby. Lot have easy access to highway, transit, beaches, golf courses, restaurants, B.C. Ferry Terminal, and Point Roberts border.”
Real estate agent Tracy Nui confirmed it’s a long-term investment opportunity.
Saying it may be a power play threat to build greenhouses, when the real plan is to build residential, nearby Forest by the Bay homeowner Gary Seabrook said what had been indicated to one of his neighbours was that there would be greenhouses and a parking lot built.
“It looks like it’s to put pressure on council to grow houses,” he said.
“It’s another Southlands but there’s things Delta can do, though, like sending it back to Victoria like Southlands, saying they’ll put it back in the ALR. But the biggest thing here is that you’re not allowed to disrupt the environment. There’s wetlands down here right along the back of these houses and they’ve covered over some of the ditches, just going in there and doing what they wanted to do with no regard to anything else,” he added.
The farm property isn’t the only one for sale in Delta listed for big dollars as an investment opportunity. A 112-acre (44.8 hectare) farm on Arthur Drive, for example, is selling for $19.7 million, described by RE/MAX Progroup Realty as having “unbeatable high profile exposure.”
Other similar listings can be seen in Richmond, including an “investment opportunity with great potential’ by Royal Pacific Realty.
One of the recommendations in the City of Delta’s Agricultural Plan is exploring financial mechanisms to address farmland speculation and deter non-agricultural development on farmland.
