USE OF ‘COMMUNITY NEED’ AS CRITERIA FOR FARMLAND REMOVAL IS LEGALLY FLAWED
Report highlights legal inconsistencies between Agricultural Land Commission Act and ALR exclusion decision-making framework
Vancouver – Concern raised by farmland preservation advocates regarding differences between the mandate of the of Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) and the way in which Commissioners have recently been making decisions on Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) exclusion applications have been legally validated by a report released today.
“Community need” has been listed as a criteria for the removal of farmland from the ALR since being introduced into the ALC’s annual Service Plan in 2002,” says Ione Smith, Special Projects Coordinator at Smart Growth BC. “We wanted to investigate whether the criteria set out in the Service Plan, which is used as a decision making guideline by Commissioners, is legally in line with the ALC Act, which states that the purpose of the ALR is to preserve farmland for food production for all British Columbians. We’re concerned because several precedent-setting Commission decisions regarding farmland removal have been made with reference to ‘community need’ since 2002.”
To determine whether the ALC has the legal authority to make decisions based on ‘community need’, Smart Growth BC retained lawyer Deborah Curran to research this issue. Curran’s report, “British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve: A Legal Review of the Question of Community Need”, is being released today.
Supported by the West Coast Environmental Law’s Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund, the report includes an overview of the initial motivation for forming the ALR more than 30 years ago, an analysis of the current ALC Act and recent Service Plans, and a review of previous court rulings on the ALR.
Niels Holbek, a Commissioner from 1991-1995, says that this report helps to clarify and reaffirm the role of the ALC and Commissioners. “In my day community need was never a determinant – preservation of our food lands was the top priority.”
Specific findings from this thorough report include:
• The purpose of the ALR and role of the ALC is to preserve farmland for food production.
• It is neither the role nor responsibility of the ALC to balance competing land uses or to negotiate the use of farmland for non-farm uses.
• The current Service Plan states that land may be removed from the ALR for ‘community need’, and that the amount removed for that purpose does not have to be minimized.
• The Service Plan goes so far as to establish targets for the percentage of decisions made based on ‘community need’.
• The ALC’s current consideration of ‘community need’ is contrary to its legislated authority.
For lawyer Deborah Curran, the simple legal choices are stark. “We can either remove the term ‘community need’ from the Service Plan, thus reaffirming the thirty year old purpose of the ALR as preserving farmland,” says Ms Curran, “or amend the legislation to include ‘community need’, a move that could transform the ALR into an urban land reserve. Polls show that most British Columbians agree that the ALR as an urban reserve is not an option.”
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Smart Growth BC is a provincial non-profit non-governmental organization devoted to fiscally, socially, and environmentally responsible land use and development with a mandate to create more livable communities in British Columbia.
For more information, please contact:
Ione Smith, Special Projects Coordinator, Smart Growth BC
ione@smartgrowth.bc.ca 604.915.5234 (office) 778.999.2149 (cell)
Deborah Curran, Lawyer,
Deborah Curran and Company
dcurran@dcurranandco.ca
250.383.0263 (office) 250.882.0642 (cell)
Report highlights legal inconsistencies between Agricultural Land Commission Act and ALR exclusion decision-making framework
Vancouver – Concern raised by farmland preservation advocates regarding differences between the mandate of the of Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) and the way in which Commissioners have recently been making decisions on Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) exclusion applications have been legally validated by a report released today.
“Community need” has been listed as a criteria for the removal of farmland from the ALR since being introduced into the ALC’s annual Service Plan in 2002,” says Ione Smith, Special Projects Coordinator at Smart Growth BC. “We wanted to investigate whether the criteria set out in the Service Plan, which is used as a decision making guideline by Commissioners, is legally in line with the ALC Act, which states that the purpose of the ALR is to preserve farmland for food production for all British Columbians. We’re concerned because several precedent-setting Commission decisions regarding farmland removal have been made with reference to ‘community need’ since 2002.”
To determine whether the ALC has the legal authority to make decisions based on ‘community need’, Smart Growth BC retained lawyer Deborah Curran to research this issue. Curran’s report, “British Columbia’s Agricultural Land Reserve: A Legal Review of the Question of Community Need”, is being released today.
Supported by the West Coast Environmental Law’s Environmental Dispute Resolution Fund, the report includes an overview of the initial motivation for forming the ALR more than 30 years ago, an analysis of the current ALC Act and recent Service Plans, and a review of previous court rulings on the ALR.
Niels Holbek, a Commissioner from 1991-1995, says that this report helps to clarify and reaffirm the role of the ALC and Commissioners. “In my day community need was never a determinant – preservation of our food lands was the top priority.”
Specific findings from this thorough report include:
• The purpose of the ALR and role of the ALC is to preserve farmland for food production.
• It is neither the role nor responsibility of the ALC to balance competing land uses or to negotiate the use of farmland for non-farm uses.
• The current Service Plan states that land may be removed from the ALR for ‘community need’, and that the amount removed for that purpose does not have to be minimized.
• The Service Plan goes so far as to establish targets for the percentage of decisions made based on ‘community need’.
• The ALC’s current consideration of ‘community need’ is contrary to its legislated authority.
For lawyer Deborah Curran, the simple legal choices are stark. “We can either remove the term ‘community need’ from the Service Plan, thus reaffirming the thirty year old purpose of the ALR as preserving farmland,” says Ms Curran, “or amend the legislation to include ‘community need’, a move that could transform the ALR into an urban land reserve. Polls show that most British Columbians agree that the ALR as an urban reserve is not an option.”
- 30 –
Smart Growth BC is a provincial non-profit non-governmental organization devoted to fiscally, socially, and environmentally responsible land use and development with a mandate to create more livable communities in British Columbia.
For more information, please contact:
Ione Smith, Special Projects Coordinator, Smart Growth BC
ione@smartgrowth.bc.ca 604.915.5234 (office) 778.999.2149 (cell)
Deborah Curran, Lawyer,
Deborah Curran and Company
dcurran@dcurranandco.ca
250.383.0263 (office) 250.882.0642 (cell)
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