CVRD Agricultural Town Hall - Reserve your spot!

Meeting Invitation Please join us at the upcoming meeting on: September 26, 2023 1 PM to 4 PM Cobble Hill Farmers Institute, 3550 Watson Ave RSVP: planyourcowichan@cvrd.ca

 Please pass this on to all farmers large and small that you may know!

As we see farmers all over the world being squeezed, through demands on reducing their fertilizer usage, to outright removal of their generationally owned lands (see: Dutch Farmers), we must look to how these policies creep in locally.

The CVRD has commissioned a report from outside our community by a company called Upland Agricultural Consulting to give advice on how to ‘manage’ our lands outside and inside the ALR.

Below we have extracted some of the more worrisome points from their report, and have pasted them here verbatim. (* bolding of words, underlines, and brackets added), incase you would like to print it and bring it for your notes to the Ag meeting tomorrow.

I have also added the presentation I showed at the Agricultural Town Hall hosted by COAP and Ruth. If you want, you can skip halfway through to hear the explanation around these bolded parts in the text below. I had to add a voice-over today as we did not catch my words on the day, so excuse the not-so-polished presentation.

Link to presentation : https://drive.google.com/file/d/13THjwQOFHWzzx97UliSB51RXMXU8DMo9/view?usp=sharing

Excerpts you may want to print:

1.        Tourist accommodations, which can include up to four bed and breakfast bedrooms within a principal dwelling and up to ten sleeping units on a farm, can be restricted and/or prohibited by local government. Currently, the CVRD’s policies and regulations on tourist accommodation varies by electoral area. It is recommended that a simplified and harmonized approach be adopted for clarity and consistency across communities. Currently, some electoral areas allow a bed and breakfast to be operated in a principal residence with a maximum of four bedrooms, whereas others allow three bedrooms. 

2.       An agricultural land base is only as healthy as a community’s urban growth containment policies. The ability for agricultural activities to flourish will depend on the ability of government policies to reduce land speculation. The most effective way to ensure that agricultural land is valued for agricultural activities is to ensure that non-farming development, such as residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and recreational uses, is firmly directed away from farmland. The CVRD’s policies are strong but should be aligned across all electoral areas to ensure consistency. Policies that explicitly state that the expansion of utilities (e.g., sewer, water, power, roads) should avoid intrusion the ALR should be included in the OCP.

3.       By requiring local governments to protect riparian areas from commercial, industrial and residential development, the Riparian Action Protection Act (RAPA) does not preclude them from also protecting riparian areas from agricultural development, for example by making riparian area DP requirements applicable to agricultural uses and buildings and/or imposing watercourse setbacks on agricultural buildings. Prior to the enactment of RAPA, the development permit power could be fully exercised under the Fish Protection Act in relation to agricultural activities and the RAPA legislation did not change that. b. Consider removing the exemption provided for “normal farm practices” within the ALR. This would provide clarity on the requirement for riparian setbacks for agricultural buildings when built on ALR land, which would better align with wording in the zoning bylaws. 

4.       The focus of this DPA should be on what non-ALR properties can do to protect farming, and discussion of activities occurring on ALR properties should be removed. (Make all Ag. land comply to the same regulations as ALR)

5.       The ALC Act and Regulations have been updated in recent years to include a maximum house footprint for a principal dwelling and to allow small secondary dwellings in the ALR under certain conditions. There are also robust guidelines set forth by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food regarding the size of the overall footprint of all residential uses, and maximum lot line setbacks for residential uses in the ALR. These guidelines have been set into ALC policy and should be reflected in the CVRD’s OCP and zoning bylaws to help guide decision-making regarding the use of the ALR for residential purposes. It is also recommended that the sizing and siting guidelines be adopted for all land designated as Agriculture outside of the ALR in order to ensure consistency across the agricultural landscape. It is worth noting that there are a number of properties with farm tax status that are outside of the ALR within the CVRD. The most common issues and update requirements uncovered 

6.       Maximum setbacks of up to 60 m from all lot lines should be included for residential development in order to encourage and maintain a contiguous land base for farming. This will ensure that residential footprints are generally maintained close to roads and lot lines, rather than in the middle of parcels along with long driveways and other accessory residential development. 

7.       Home occupation and home-based businesses a. Include a strict and consistent size limit for structures associated with home occupation (home-based businesses). b. Consider requiring farm tax status for properties using ALR land for home occupation accessory buildings, so that it is not the primary use of farmland. Home occupation is within the purview of local government to regulate, and local government has the ability to restrict and/or prohibit it. c. Add specific restrictions around truck parking and vehicle repairs in the ALR

8.       Ensure bed and breakfast regulations are consistent with ALC regulations and are consistent across electoral areas. b. Create clarity around permitted Agri-Tourism uses and criteria, as per the ALC Act and Regulations and ensure that it is clear that farm tax status is required. c. Determine how many (if any) Agri-Tourism Accommodations (e.g., camp sites, RVs, cabins) should be allowed on a parcel with farm tax status in the ALR. Consider creating consistency with parcels outside of the ALR with farm tax status.

9.       The proposed setbacks of cannabis production from parks, schools and daycares is excessively limiting.  

10.   Controlled Environment Structures (also known as vertical farming) are now a permitted use in the ALR. The CVRD should consider whether to place restrictions on this use, such as size or siting. The CVRD also has the option to prohibit this use after August 31, 2022, (controlled environment agriculture structures constructed or under construction before this date cannot be prohibited).

11.   Allow some limited agriculture, horticulture or urban agriculture (definition to be determined) in all Residential zones outside of Agriculture zones. 

12.   Parcels and zones a. There is an excessive number of Agriculture zones. These should be minimized. b. Overall, there are a large proportion of small parcels within the ALR in the CVRD. On average, more than 40% of parcels in CVRD electoral areas are under 2 ha in size, and more than 30% of parcels under 1 ha in size. This provides a strong argument for keeping minimum parcels sizes as large as possible.

 (Therefore 70% of Ag land could be deemed urban, and be required to follow residential zone rules ie no pigs, roosters etc. Some municipalities have a minimum of 8 hectares to be deemed Agricultural! Also see point 11)

13.   Consider introducing building permits for agricultural structures. This will help to measure and track development within the ALR. In our experience, many “agricultural buildings” end up being used for non-farming endeavours. 

14.   The restriction of livestock buildings inside of a 30 m setback from watercourses, lakes and the sea should be integrated into DPA1 – Riparian Protection

15.   Similar policies exist in other official community plans. For example, the District of Saanich OCP refers to supporting Island Health and the enforcement of regulations regarding septic disposal systems. Local government can have a role in bylaw enforcement in the ALR particularly because there are local bylaws that also impact land in the ALR (e.g., residential uses, home occupation and soil and fill, to name a few). Both informal and formal partnerships between local government’s bylaw enforcement and the ALC’s Compliance and Enforcement department exist in communities across the province

Feeling over-governed yet? Contact your local area director today! A full list of area Directors can be found at CVRD.ca and see you at the town hall!