Editor: Re: Farmland consolidated in Tsaw, Oct. 2 What a lovely story your reporter did on the sale of the Century Group's 56th Street property to Delta.
Yes, it was super duper and community-minded of Century Group to take a loss on a property it bought in 2007, a purchase that allowed Delta to lease the land to Snow Farms for organic farming. It was absolutely wonderful, though it does raise some interesting questions.
It's too bad your reporter didn't mention the bargain-priced sale occurred during the time Delta was considering the Century Group's Northgate rezoning application. It has also occurred while Delta is working with Century on the highly contentious Southlands rezoning proposal.
Does Century make it a habit to sell its property at such losses?
Since Century has said it is supportive of community farming, why didn't it arrange for Snow Farms or other small-scale farmers to lease the ALR zoned property in the first place? It has owned the land since 2007 and yet made no move to lease it for farming on any scale.
Century has made quite a pitch for community-based gardening and small-scale farming on the Southlands. Certainly leasing out the 56th Street property for such purposes would have been an excellent opportunity to show the community its Southlands farming plans are more than rhetoric designed to get the development proposal approved. At least we now know that Century Group is willing to take a big loss to help out taxpayers and what dollar value it is willing to sell per acre for farmland.
Debbie McBride
