VAPOR vs VAFFC, Sat, Jan 28, 10 am to 2 pm

In this invitation, VAPOR* asks you to participate in an event on Saturday, January 28, 2012 at the East Richmond Community Hall, 12360 Cambie Road. A VAFFC** open house and VAPOR open presence will offer alternative views of the jet fuel issue. The time frame is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The jet fuel issue is the proposed South Arm jet fuel tanker port, immense fuel storage depot near Riverport, and second pipeline through Richmond. It is like the Garden City Lands issue in key ways:

• It is an issue of ecological protection, food security and community values.
• The community has been pitted against powerful players with huge financial resources and influence.
• A community group (VAPOR*, like the Garden City Lands Coalition) has taken a leading role and aims to collaborate with the City of Richmond.
• Enabling the public to be well informed will likely lead to a good result.
• Coming up with a much better plan is as necessary as defeating a plan that appears to be seriously flawed.

Furthermore, VAPOR has learned from the Garden City Lands efforts, and the coalition may in turn be able to learn from VAPOR success in facilitating an excellent result. (For the Garden City Lands, an excellent result would be a suitable park that takes the incredible potential of a legacy from the past and enables it to become a fitting incredible legacy for all generations to come.)

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Notes:

*VAPOR = Vancouver Airport Pipeline Opposition for Richmond.
**VAFFC = Vancouver Airport Fuel Facilities Corportation.

 This blog includes three previous posts on the pipeline aspect of the issue:

• Jet fuel pipeline proposal
• Jet fuel pipeline unites Richmond
• Pipeline explosion—relevant reality?

 The City of Richmond website has this jet fuel proposal page.

My response to the Environmental Assessment Office is here. It begins like this: “The river estuary that is threatened by potential jet fuel accidents funnels all the fish migrating to and from the greatest salmon river in the world.”

John ter Borg, vice president of the Garden City Lands Coalition Society, wrote this letter of support for VAPOR to Richmond Council on behalf of the society.

Final invitation: Details about the January 28 event here.

Welcome to Richmond’s Garden City Lands blog!

We’re citizens committed to keeping the Garden City lands green in B.C.’s Agricultural Land Reserve and to stewarding their natural treasure for agricultural, ecological and open-land park uses for community wellness.

We’ve defeated ALR-exclusion attempts, and the lands are now safe from development. The ALR is about good use of agricultural land and not just keeping the land protected, and the new stage is to encourage and assist the City of Richmond to take efficient effective action.

• The related Garden City Lands Coalition site introduces the Garden City Lands issue.
• Use “Email Subscription” in the Main Menu (top left) to be informed of new posts on this blog.
• Send a subscribe email to receive occasional brief Garden City News emails—if you support saving the lands.

Update: In order to make the primary source available to you, we have added audio to the post titled ”The facts disagree with Councillor Evelina Halsey-Brandt.”

The spirit of the water dragon

At sunset on Lunar New Year, neighbours from across the street (here in Richmond, B.C.) appeared at our door. New Canadians from China, they brought good wishes and an attractive bowl of steaming-hot dumplings, the best I’ve ever tasted. The happy interaction was even better.

As they left to bring dumplings and joy to others, it struck me that the pleasant surprise was actually typical.  We’ve received and given help and little presents and homemade Christmas cards with neighbours for more than a quarter-century, and the spirit preceded us.

It takes other forms as well, and it evolved as newcomers from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mainland China and beyond enriched the multicultural mix, but always there’s been mindful goodwill. We’re delighted to have a young Indo-Canadian family next door now, and they brought it too.

It’s a matter of thoughtful human beings, a self-energizing cycle and incredible good luck. May it prosper in this Year of the Water Dragon! It’s said that the water dragon brings creativity, empowerment and—crucially—empathy.

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Is that story relevant in the Richmond’s Garden City Lands blog? I think so. The qualities it exemplifies are ones that will enable success in the next stage for the Garden City Lands, which is a transition from preventing great harm to enabling great benefit for community wellness.

Planning versus Musqueam lawsuit

Some people still seem to think the City of Richmond can’t begin studying the Garden City Lands until the Musqueam Indian Band lawsuit is resolved. I’ve just looked through the lawsuit documents again for any evidence of that. There is none.

Essentially, the band wants more money for the City’s alleged unjust enrichment of itself. Any planning that is done for uses that are in keeping with the lands existing status as ALR land would help to refute the claim. Since almost all members of the current council are committed to ALR uses, we can  be confident that preliminary planning would help in every way, including the lawsuit way.

Reviewing the lawsuit documents did remind me of a couple of points that do affect use of the lands:

• According to the band’s statement of claim, the band is still trying to develop the “TEC Lands,” with the Band getting a share of the profits. The TEC Lands are the 15% of the Garden City Lands that would have been used for a Trade and Exhibition Centre if it had been worth building. The claim seems obviously weak, but in any case there is no way that preliminary planning (e.g., doing an inventory of plant and animal life) would hinder the possibility of the development.
• Similarly, the statement of claim seeks to have the City develop a joint cultural centre with the Musqueam. That too wouldn’t be hindered by the City’s preliminary planning and is obviously weak, since the City purchase of the Lands was explicitly “free and clear of all encumbrances.” (Common sense says that the obligation the Band is claiming would be an encumbrance.) My best guess is that claims like this one are mainly included as distractions from the “unjust enrichment” claim that would make some sense if the City were not committed to ALR uses.

To fill out this post, review “Taking action to defuse the lawsuit,” which includes links to the Musqueam lawsuit documents.

Harmony Tours and discoveries

For the first time ever, Michael Wolfe led a December eco-tour of the Garden City Lands in 2011. It was called the Harmony Tour to reflect the new stage of the Garden City Lands issue. Because of popular demand, he led another one, Harmony Tour 2,  a week later. The groups included many influential and insightful participants.

In the above photo, Michael is answering a question from Shelly Xu (right). The identifiable participants include Richmond School Trustee Norm Goldstein and Dr. Kent Mullinix, Director, Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security, Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Also visible is Bardia Khaledi, who is involved in several ways at the Terra Nova Sharing Farm and brings a unique perspective exemplified by his 2010 MA thesis topic, “The Colonial Present: Botanical Gardens as Sites of Nationalism, Environmentalism and Aboriginality in British Columbia.”

On the first December tour, Michael was able to add bunchberry (also called “dwarf dogwood”) to his inventory list of edible plants on the Garden City Lands, as the mowed condition of the lands made that low-lying plant easier to spot. On the second tour, which followed a very different route, Michael identified bunchberry again, far from the first location. The native species found on the lands are part of the heritage that many knowledgeable citizens want to protect.

The harmony of the Lands

A 2012 wish for Richmond & the Garden City Lands 

The story of the Garden City Lands has included some harmony and can include very much more now.  At this time, with the Richmond council and the Richmond community in unprecedented agreement about respecting the legal status of the lands, we are entering a collaboratively creative stage. While there’s an inherent aspect of conflict in creativity, the effect can and should be harmonious.

If the planning process is handled well, the many kinds of notes will come together in harmony as a legacy “for our children’s children” and an inspiration for the world. Here’s how I envision a harmonious next stage from a citizens-as-stakeholders perspective:

Inclusive park planning
with a clear & fitting goal

such as open-land parkland
that embodies our island story
& our hope for our city centre
& whole community,

with informed city staff & council
drawing on experts of every kind
& the best of Richmond
like the parkland at Terra Nova

& with close interaction
with city public—stakeholders—
for informed & coherent choice
to meet deep need in a blend of ways

that empower Nature to restore
our legacy from ages past
& capture the best of our hearts
in our legacy for time to come

& heed the zoning for ALR uses
for food, recreation & conservation
in the Eco-Safety Demonstrative City,
an honoured model for all the world,

enables notes from our many voices
to join in the song of a wellness park.

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Anything to add, subtract or modify?

Join in the Harmony Tour!

You are cordially invited to join eco-tour guide Michael Wolfe on Sunday, December 4 at 2:00 p.m. at the main entrance to the Garden City Lands for the free Harmony Tour.

From the eco-tour name, you may imagine Michael conducting something like this:

That would be novel, and the lands are home to red-winged blackbirds, but no singing is planned.

It’s just that the Garden City Lands are in a new phase. There is no longer any major obstacle to keeping that parkland green in the ALR and stewarding it for agricultural, ecological and open-land park uses for community wellness. For years, the situation involved an adversarial kind of conflict no matter how much we wanted a harmonious process for enabling a naturally harmonious place to be just that for community wellness. Now it is possible.

Individual citizens’ visions for the lands will all be a little different, but we know they can come together in harmony, not discord. Why are we confident about that? Because it is exactly what has happened for years in the Garden City Lands Coalition. It can still happen when we’re all aiming for excellence, even though the antagonist is simply mediocrity, which would destroy the promising future of the lands.

As in musical harmony, there needs to be a natural structure that enables the differences to come together in a satisfying way. With the Garden City Lands, it will help a lot if there is a common understanding of the reality of the lands. There’s no better way to experience that reality than to tour the lands with an expert guide.

We’ve never had a December tour, but we’ve never had a Harmony Tour before either. And what more fitting time than early in the season of peace on Earth to all of goodwill?

For important details, such as what to wear, please go to the Harmony Tour page.

Fittingly, the forecast is for a pleasantly cool and sunny day.

John ter Borg’s PARC insights

This guest post from John ter Borg was also published in the Richmond Review as “Preserving the Garden City Lands. . . .” It responds to the key article titled “Listening to the Lands = PARC.”

At first glance the Garden City lands PARC concept map looks simple, but upon deeper inspection it becomes clearer that important knowledge, ideas, and natural history have been captured.

As someone who has participated in the public eco-tours led by Michael Wolfe, I have been able to see firsthand the diversity of animal and plant species that make up the Garden City Lands.

It is clear to me that the concept map is a valuable tool that will allow the future potential of the lands to be communicated, and lead to the restoration of a naturally productive bog ecosystem. It is on these tours that I am always reminded of just how lucky we are to be able to access nature so close to home.

The lands which have never been farmed form a natural buffer between Richmond’s high density urban centre and the Richmond Nature Park to the east. These remnants of the vast bogs that once covered more than one-third of the island passively provide essential ecosystem services that contribute to the wellness of our community.

Conservation of this prime agricultural land has the net benefit of securing our future food needs, while at the same time providing abatement of noise and air pollution, climate regulation resulting from carbon storage in trees, plants and soils, habitat for pollinators, and helps to control runoff and absorb wastes.

Proceeding with a dyke-trail approach, including the perimeter dyke, would facilitate effective water management and encourage the development of a sustainable food systems park that could incorporate community farms and gardens, allow urban agriculture research, and opportunities for nature-based recreation.

A natural next step is for the City of Richmond to recognize and incorporate the Biophysical Inventory and Evaluation of the Lulu Island Bog report as a baseline for guiding further studies and for planning purposes.

A related article on this blog is “Getting PARC trails on the Lands soon.”

Stronger Agricultural Land Commission = tremendous news for the Lands

The Agricultural Land Commission has now been strengthened by changes to B.C. legislation and increased assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture. As of today, Nov. 25, 2011, the amendments to the ALC Act are law.

This is tremendous news for the protection of the Garden City Lands.

In particular, the legislation puts the commission in a strong position to refuse re-applications within five years after a previous application has been refused (Section 30.1). For the Garden City Lands, that period would extend to February 2014. Furthermore, today’s Ministry of Agriculture press release calls that a moratorium, which is a powerful term.

In general, the provincial action is supportive of the 2010 report by ALC chair Richard Bullock, which reflects the views of the Garden City Lands Coalition Society and many other groups and individuals who provided input. The many improvements are described more fully in an earlier press release from the ministry.

Here is the key section that had been added:

Eight Friends of Garden City elected to Richmond’s 2011-2014 council!

Congratulations to all Friends of Garden City who were elected to the Richmond City Council in the civic election of Nov. 19, 2011.

They consist of Mayor Malcolm Brodie and 2011-2014 Councillors Bill McNulty, Linda McPhail, Derek Dang, Linda Barnes, Harold Steves, Chak Au and Ken Johnston.

That’s eight out of nine. At one point, there was only Coun. Harold Steves. Then he was joined by Linda Barnes to make two and the now-retired Sue Halsey-Brandt to make three. Last election we added Ken Johnston, and he was joined soon afterward by Bill McNulty and Derek Dang to make six. As we look ahead to the new council, eight is great!

And thank you very much to ALL the Friends of Garden City who ran in this election!

Evelina Halsey-Brandt goal that could mislead

The following is a guest post from Carol Southgate, a former director of the Garden City Lands Coalition Society and former member of the Richmond Agricultural Advisory Committee. She sent it for sharing with Friends of Garden City after realizing that Evelina Halsey-Brandt’s campaign literature could lead people think that incumbent is a Friend of the Garden City Lands. On the contrary, she is one of only two* council candidates who has NOT committed to stewarding the Garden City Lands in the Agricultural Land Reserve for agricultural, ecological and open-land park uses for community benefit. She has not even committed to keeping the Garden City Lands in the ALR. Here’s what Carol had to say after seeing her mail:

It is a safe assumption that all candidates for council want to utilize the Garden City Lands for community uses only. Today’s mail brought a card from Evelina Halsey-Brandt with that as a “goal” for next term.

Voters need to know that she is the only incumbent councillor who voted for commercial development of most of the Garden City Lands that never showed a change of heart.

In the lengthy public hearing on the issue in 2008, most of the speakers wanted only Agriculture Land Reserve uses for community benefit. She treated them like adversaries.

The Garden City Lands is now city parkland in the ALR. The coming steps should be expert studies and then more public consultation. Evelina Halsey-Brandt’s past behaviour shows she is not suited to it.

*The other candidate who has NOT made that commitment is Peter Mitchell, who addressed council on February 28 of this year to suggest uses of the Garden City Lands that would only be possible with exclusion from the ALR.

The facts disagree with Councillor Evelina Halsey-Brandt

Evelina Halsey-Brandt denied the truth, so the truth must be told again.

First, let’s travel back in time to March 2010, soon after Richmond council voted to fund the purchase of the Garden City Lands. The Halsey-Brandt couple on council criticized the price.

In a letter in the Review, I referred to a December 2008 council meeting where “Coun. Greg Halsey-Brandt said a Richmond offer to buy the Garden City Lands should be based on the value of the Walmart property across Alderbridge Road.”

Thanks to the city clerk’s mp3 audio file, we can listen to that 2008 meeting in progress (click here). The voice is Harold Steves’: “We have already heard the Halsey-Brandt team suggesting that we pay the highest market value for the property based on what Walmart is paying next door.” He goes on to talk about the Halsey-Brandt team suggesting “millions of dollars an acre,” and Evelina interrupts with “We’re not the Halsey-Brandt team!”

The same recording gives us Greg Halsey-Brandt (click here): “As I understand it, there is or was an application by Walmart, right beside it, just north across the street, so in terms of evaluating the land values, I think sort of the standard is set in the community of what any negotiator would tell you what property values are worth.” (That street is Alderbridge.)

We also hear Evelina (click here) on what it would cost to acquire the lands: “It’s going to be based on how the land is properly assessed by the assessment authority, and which is with what would be adjacent uses, which is your Cambie area.” (The Walmart property is there.)

Travelling forward to March 2010 again, we read this in a letter from Evelina to the Richmond Review: “I was shocked by the false and misleading statements Jim Wright made. Wright and everyone who follows council meetings knows that at no time did I nor Coun. Greg Halsey-Brandt say that Richmond’s offer to buy the Garden City lands should be based on the value of the Walmart property across Alderbridge Road.”

In the words of the Review’s acting editor at the time, Evelina “pulled the audio tapes from that meeting to confirm her own account. She was quite clear on this.”

That told me that audio of the meeting in question might exist. I said it couldn’t possibly agree with the councillor, but I had no access to it until long afterward.

Ironically, the Evelina letter calls me defamatory, malicious and libelous.

The letter was harmful to the community. As unpaid community service, I’ve spent four years helping the people of Richmond to understand a complex issue, and my credibility that was trashed is needed for that.

The damage would also affect the Garden City Lands Coalition, the citizens who stopped what Evelina advocated—dense development on a large green area in the city centre. We need our credibility for the next stage, ensuring that the park there will meet local needs in a fitting way and inspire the world.

“Is she just a complete liar then?” That’s a citizen’s comment on this blog story about Evelina Halsey-Brandt.

My view: The essence of “lie” is intent to deceive, and Evelina’s intent is unclear. She seems to believe that whatever she says is true, no matter what the facts show. So “complete liar” goes too far.

But it’s wise not to trust what she says.

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Note re audio: For context, one can download the final third of the 2008-12-08 meeting. You will find the quoted material at approximately 23:53 (Greg Halsey-Brandt), 48:32 (Evelina Halsey-Brandt), and 52:32 (Harold Steves). Please let us know by email if you encounter any difficulty with that.

“New blood” that fired up debate includes Cynthia and Linda

I appreciate that the Richmond News published a letter from me as “‘New blood’ fires up debate.” It’s a bit peripheral to the Garden City Lands, but I’ll post the full version here in order to be fair to two candidates whose names, shown below in this colour, were left out. The editor trimmed my wording to fit the “Choice Words” space. Here’s what I sent in:

Congratulations, Richmond Centre for Disability! On Tuesday you put on the most engaging and revealing all-candidates meeting I’ve ever seen.

The mayoral bout between heavyweight Malcolm Brodie and bantamweight Richard Lee had the full house on the edge of their seats. The bantamweight bobbed out of reach and weaved in to score points.

The council bout was a battle royal, with talented new candidates in place of the usual challengers, who are often hard to picture as councillors. Many of this year’s challengers are real contenders.

The “new blood” thrived on the loose officiating, with ref Frances Clark stepping in just enough.

As I saw it, challengers Chak Au, Carol Day, De Whalen, Michael Wolfe and Alexa Loo were a good match for the incumbents. Cynthia Chen and Linda McPhail weren’t out of place either.

Several incumbents did mutual back-patting, like at televised council meetings. Too bad the cameras weren’t there to show the event on the community TV channel. It would be an eye-opener for electors.

As it is, name recognition, big-bucks advertising and vote-splitting will keep most of the contenders out. I think highly of almost all the incumbents, but it’s sad that the wider electorate couldn’t evaluate all of the applicants in Tuesday’s great job interview.

2011 Richmond Council election – Friends Running for Mayor

In the recent survey of Richmond council candidates, both candidates for mayor indicated their commitment to stewarding the Garden City Lands in the Agricultural Land Reserve for agricultural, ecological and open-land park uses for community benefit. Barring a double calamity between now and election day, the citizens will definitely elect a mayor with that commitment. Great progress!

Richard Lee

A member of the Garden City Lands Coalition Society, Richard Lee keeps in touch from time to time and did a little translation into Traditional Chinese that the coalition needed at short notice. At the recent World Food Day celebration at the cultural centre, Richard staffed the coalition booth for several hours, and his language skills and good-natured personality were useful. Richard has some firsthand familiarity with the lands, and it was evident from his comments at an all-candidates meeting that he has read at least one of the documents that were filed with the Supreme Court of BC in the April–August period of 2010. That scored points with me because we could do with council members with skill in reading legal documents related to the Garden City Lands and other issues. It was also evident that he can retain his assertiveness, composure and good humour under pressure, and that would be useful in dealing with tough partners like the Garden City Lands partners (e.g., if the lawsuit goes to mediation).

Malcolm Brodie

Malcolm Brodie was in an almost impossible situation with the Garden City Lands agreements:

• On the one hand, in his mayor’s role as the chief executive of the City of Richmond, he had to work with city staff to implement the Garden City Lands agreements between the city as a business entity and the Musqueam Indian Band (also as a business entity) and Canada Lands Company CLC Ltd.
• On the other hand, he had to use his legislative discretion in the best interests of the citizens of Richmond in his mayor’s role as a voting member of council.

Since Richmond as a business and Richmond as a legislative council were increasingly pulling in opposite directions, that was difficult. Since the Musqueam Indian Band’s lawsuit shows that it wasn’t super-sensitive to the council’s legislative discretion, it was an even more difficult spot for the mayor to be in. In view of that situation, it is better to focus on the future, rather than dwell on a past in which the intertangled roles must have had a major effect.

In the recent survey of candidates, Malcolm included a comment that quoted the definition of “Conservation and Recreation,” the land use designation that has been adopted for Richmond in the Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy. That neither expands nor limits what can be done under the provincial ALR designation, which takes precedence, so I’m not sure how it is relevant other than as a statement of intent that should be adequate for Musqueam lawsuit purposes. However, I’m mentioning it in case any reader sees a greater significance. (The Metro designations are vague and toothless but have symbolic significance.)

2011 Council Election—”Running Again” Friends for Council

Six Friends of Garden City who have previously served on Richmond council have returned to try again as candidates in the 2011 local election. In the coalition survey, all of those candidates expressed a commitment “to steward the Garden City Lands in the ALR for agricultural, ecological and open-land park uses for community benefit.

Ken Johnston

Ken Johnston made a huge difference for the “Save Garden City” cause in the 2008 election. He was the first Richmond First candidate to come out in favour of conserving the Garden City Lands in the ALR. Support for the goal has obviously crossed all political boundaries at the federal and provincial levels, and Ken’s clear support meant that it was crossing all political boundaries at the city level too. Ken’s Richmond First teammates began modifying their stance, and two of them were elected with Ken. When it was time to be counted in a key vote in December 2008, they all voted in a way that turned the tide from a “Pave Garden City” future for the lands to a probable “Save Garden City” future. We’re not there yet, and Ken can help the progress to continue.

Cynthia Chen

When Cynthia Chen was on council in her 2005–2008 term, she cautiously stayed on the side that was working toward getting the Garden City Lands out of the ALR for development. However, I could see that she was genuinely open to other views, and I therefore anticipated that she would come over to the Save Garden City side sooner or later. After the November 2008 election, when Cynthia narrowly missed getting enough votes, a meeting was called for the purpose of voting for an agreement to revive an old Garden City Lands agreement that was about to expire and also to try to impress the Agricultural Land Commission by means of some de facto rezoning in the McLelland Area that supposedly would have a benefit for agriculture. The old council’s term had not ended. The vote was postponed, so Cynthia didn’t get to vote on the matter after all, but the important point is that Cynthia was going to vote against the resolutions, which means that she was going to vote to save the lands. I was told that by a reliable source (another council member), and Cynthia confirmed that when I asked her. Cynthia has remained fully committed to stewarding the lands in the ALR in appropriate ways. The Garden City Lands Coalition motivation includes respect for nature as a fundamental aspect, and Cynthia is a very respectful person in every way in my experience. I noticed that during the time when Cynthia was a councillor and again at a recent all-candidates meeting when another candidate made a low-blow comment about her and she handled it with dignity, rather than (for example) an angry outburst against the offender.

 

Harold Steves

A longtime defender of the Agricultural Land Reserve, Harold Steves had a crucial early role in keeping the Garden City Lands in the ALR, as he was the only council member to vote against the 2005 agreement that would have put high-density development on the lands. He has continued to vote in a way that is consistent with that. Harold apparently wants to make the eastern 60% of the lands an annex to the Richmond Nature Park that is half a mile to the east and to consider bringing in topsoil for the rest.

Linda Barnes

The first councillor to join Harold Steves in working to keep the Garden City Lands in the ALR was Linda Barnes. She has continued to vote in a way that is consistent with that. Her support, along with that of Sue Halsey-Brandt (who has announced her upcoming retirement from council), was crucial in a positive way. They built confidence and held the fort until the cavalry arrived. (The cavalry was Ken Johnston, Bill McNulty and Derek Dang.)

Bill McNulty

Bill McNulty is a member of the Garden City Lands Coalition Society. He and Derek Dang had a crucial positive effect when they sided with “Save Garden City” advocates Linda Barnes Sue Halsey-Brandt, Ken Johnston and Harold Steves in a December 2008 vote. Together the six councillors defeated a proposal to extend a key development agreement past its final deadline, and at the same time they defeated another proposal that amounted to a de facto rezoning of part of the McLennan area (apparently because staff thought that the step might look good to the Agricultural Land Commission). I think that was a wise decision for a number of reasons, including the unprecedented and draconian effect of the McLennan proposal, but in this context it was wise for the future of the Garden City Lands. Bill is the councillor who has been advancing the sports fields proposal that the coalition society board has difficulty seeing as an ALR use of any kind, but he has affirmed that he supports the coalition goal of stewarding the Garden City Lands for agricultural, ecological and open-land park uses for community benefit. Naturally I’m pleased.

Derek Dang

The above points about Bill McNulty generally apply also to Derek Dang. As it happens, though, Derek is not a member of the Garden City Lands Coalition society. Also, if I recall correctly, Derek spoke in favour of an “Agricultural” designation in the Metro Vancouver Regional Growth Strategy instead of the “Conservation and Recreation” one. The coalition members I heard from (and it was quite a few) all favoured the “Agricultural” designation because it was less open to confused attempts at uses of the lands that would not be allowed under the Agricultural Land Commission Act, which takes precedence, as the Metro document explicitly and correctly states. I think the council members all eventually decided to agree on what the majority wanted, but it was good that Derek and one or two others  spoke up for the alternative.

2011 Richmond Council Election – “New-blood” Friends for Councillor

Note: To read about the Richmond councillor candidates who would be “new blood” on council, scroll down past this post to the next one.

In 2011, Richmond has an unusual number of knowledgeable, vibrant, promising candidates challenging for positions on council. Almost all are Friends of Garden City—citizens who are committed to a green future in the Agricultural Land Reserve for the Garden City Lands. Everyone of these “new-blood candidates” is committed to stewarding the Garden City Lands in the ALR for agricultural, ecological and open-land park uses for community wellness.

Michael Wolfe

If there could be just one council member standing up for the best Garden City Lands future for the Richmond community, I think a good person for that would be Michael Wolfe. A conservation biologist and teacher, he is the foremost expert on the ecology of the lands. His campaigning to save the lands goes back to the 2005 ALR-exclusion application; he brought slides of life on the lands to the Agricultural Land Commission hearing to show the commissioners what was really there. Michael is a founding member of the Garden City Lands Coalition Society and has remained very active. He visits the lands to catalogue and monitor the wildlife, leads eco-tours, helps at public events and society gatherings, makes lively and articulate presentations to council, and even does a bit of cleanup on the lands. He had a major role in developing the PARC concept for the lands (Parkland for Agriculture, Recreation and Conservation for community wellness), which reflects his balanced approach to food security, ecological restoration, and open-land park uses of the lands. It is the only concept put forward so far that could realistically be expected to enable restoration of a significant area of sphagnum bog ecosystem and to ensure near-certitude of a long-term ALR future for the lands. In the past six years, Michael has grown from an exuberantly dedicated student to a mature young professional with extensive experience at council as a critiquing audience member and delegation.

Chak Kwong Au

A longtime advocate for urban agriculture education on the Garden City Lands, Chak Au took action through his positions as a long-time school board trustee and a significant player in international environmental groups to successfully nominate Richmond for the International Eco-Safety Demonstrative City Award from the International Eco-Safety Cooperative Organization (IESCO). Richmond is one of only three cities in the world to receive that award, and it happened because Chak showed the awards committee how the Garden City Lands Coalition and other community groups at Terra Nova have taken citizenship initiative to help protect and enhance green space that would otherwise have been lost. A member of the Garden City Lands Coalition Society, Chak has firsthand knowledge of the ecology of the lands. He had a leading role in initiating the partnership between the City of Richmond and Kwantlen Polytechnic University, which has been a win-win in Richmond and could be a win-win on the Garden City Lands with Chak as an advocate on council. He has often been involved in the coalition society’s events and also helped spread the coalition message at the recent World Food Day event at the library. Chak has made a personal mission of being a bridge between cultures, especially building respect between the Chinese-language and English-language populations, and he could be expected to do that with environmental and food-security issues, including the Garden City Lands, on council.

Carol Day

Another longtime member of the Garden City Lands Coalition Society, Carol Day is the coalition’s energetic coordinator of special events, a former director of the society, and a volunteer who has spent innumerable hours and her own money to get results. Besides going to the lands to experience them firsthand, she has helped start the coalition website, designed the logo, produced the Save Garden City stickers that one sees on cars, and created all of the coalition’s impressive signage. Carol has often argued passionately and persuasively for the green ALR future of the lands at council meetings and in the newspapers. Action-oriented Carol is the kind of person who gets a job finished while others around her are still pondering whether to roll up their sleeves. She would likely get quickly to the bottom of the mysterious inaction on the Garden City Lands in the eighteen months that have passed since the city purchased the property, and she spoke about that at a recent all-candidates meeting.

De Whalen

De Whalen is a longtime advocate for the neediest members of the Richmond community and also for the Garden City Lands. The two go together because the coalition, the people who work together to save the lands, have always been driven to meet community need, not greed. To help save the lands, De has written letters to the newspapers, addressed council several times, and participated in public and coalition events. She has also given the green future of the Garden City Lands a significant place in her election campaign.

Alexa Loo

Alexa Loo has thought through her position on the Garden City Lands during the election and arrived at an unreserved commitment to steward the lands in the ALR for agricultural, ecological and open-land park uses for community wellness. She is particularly interested in bringing together active play with ecological experience, and that fits well with the popular idea of having several playgrounds with appropriate themes in open-space land adjoining bog-restoration and agricultural areas. My sense from interacting with Alexa on the issue is that she is a person of integrity who will follow through on her commitment, and certainly her success as an Olympic athlete proves that she stays with things in a systematic way that gets results.

Linda McPhail

I was pleased to see in the individual results of the recent survey of candidates that Linda McPhail was quick to respond with commitment to save and steward the lands in the ALR (for agricultural, ecological and open-land park uses for community wellness). Even her political opponents who know her say that Linda is hard-working and thorough, and perhaps she can bring those qualities to the very complex Garden City Lands issue. There is a huge need for that.

Jun Wuyan

Jun Wuyan is an intelligent young New Canadian who wears his sincere commitment to serve the community on his sleeve. He especially wants to bring young Asian-Canadians into civic involvement. Since he is also fully committed to the Garden City Lands, no doubt he would bring the two commitments together as a councillor.

Cliff Lifeng Wei

Cliff Lifeng Wei is another bright young Chinese-Canadian who is fully committed to stewarding the Garden City Lands in the ALR. One of his visions for the lands is for a sort of Butchart Gardens there. I’ve heard a number of other people suggest including a botanical garden on the lands, so he would certainly get some support for the idea. In any case, it is encouraging to see that he has put thought into the issue.

2011 Richmond election survey of council candidates

Garden City Lands Coalition Society secretary Bruno Vernier  surveyed the Richmond council candidates yesterday. It turned out well. You can read the survey report in PDF, but here are some highlights and implications, with thanks to Bruno.

Malcolm Brodie and Richard Lee, the candidates for mayor, both said “Yes” to the key question: “Are you committed to stewarding the Garden City Lands in the Agricultural Land Reserve?”

Fourteen candidates for councillor said “Yes” too:  Jun Wuyan, Linda McPhail, Cynthia Chen, Ken Johnston, Carol Day, Cliff Wifeng Wei, Michael Wolfe, Alexa Loo, Chak Kwong Au, De Whalen, Derek Dang, Bill McNulty, Harold Steves and Linda Barnes.

As council members, they could promptly commence the long-needed biophysical studies of the lands, consult widely with experts and the community, and plan toward fast Agricultural Land Commission approval.

With a firm statement of unequivocal ALR intent, they could also help Richmond to disprove the lawsuit claim that Richmond unjustly enriched itself through the purchase of the lands.

One candidate provided only comments. The survey report fills out the good-news story.

Getting PARC trails on the Lands soon

The all-weather dyke trails in the PARC concept for the Garden City Lands are popular, especially because there is a lot of impatience to be able to explore the lands. Trudging into deep growth and stepping into hidden streams isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, and people are also rightfully what to avoid damaging the life on the lands that they want to conserve.

The dyke trails are shown in darker green in the PARC concept map at left.

Judging from questions, the PARC trails require more explanation. It will take a longish one because so many other factors are involved.

I agree with the intuitive public sense that some main trails need to be built early on to enable access. However, a lot of the analysis and planning that’s needed first has inexplicably not been done. As far as I can learn, it has not even been started. Skipping prudent steps in order to make up for the lack of action is not an option. However, identifying the needed steps is a good foundation for catching up by using an efficient process.

A key reason for extensive planning is that the dyke trails would all serve ecohydrology goals, with such water-management purposes as:

• Irrigating and draining for agriculture and recreation
• Controlling the supply of the contaminant-free and nutrient-free precipitation required for bog restoration
• Maintaining optimal water levels for conservation (e.g, about 30 cm below the surface for restoring the bog ecosystem)
• Assuring protected reservoirs of drinking water for emergencies
• Enabling other selected purposes such as aquaculture, geothermal heating, and permaculture

It is common sense to make the hydrology dykes also serve as trails, with the effect that they will be wide and raised a little. That way they will be:

• Usable year round
• Inviting for a range of users, including those who use wheelchairs and including both bicyclists and walkers (with enough trail width to enable safe use by all)
• An intuitive message (complementing educational methods) to stay on the trails and off any sensitive bordering areas.

Like the dykes, an area roughly corresponding to what’s labeled “multi-purpose area” on the PARC concept map also needs to be worked on early, with an all-weather trail linking it to the ecology dyke trail to the east of it. It would be similar to the ecology dykes but isn’t shown on the PARC map yet because the optimal placement for hydrology value is not yet obvious.

Some examples of the studies that need to be done are:

• Inventories/maps of all forms of life on the lands
• Water table levels by location and time of year, and also deep water movement (probably like the northwestward movement under the DND lands but possibly not)
• Land composition, e.g., via drilling for core samples (largely replacing the inadequate study that was done in the context of high-density construction on the lands)
• Future needs for community gardens and community farms, especially for the city centre
• Availability and suitability of potential community partners, including one or two principal partners such as an urban-agriculture education partner (e.g., Kwantlen Polytechnic University, since the city has involved Kwantlen in related efforts since early 2008)
• Availability of suitable fill for the dyke trails and multi-purpose area
• Need for the existing Westminster Highway ditch and oft-suggested Garden City Road ditch to be outside the dyke (almost certainly best on Westminster but not necessarily best on Garden City Road)

In my view, considerable initial investigation needs to be done by Richmond staff, hopefully in consultation with knowledgeable community people, just to determine the scope of the studies.  One example is that the city can use its own expertise and available outside expertise to determine the kinds of fill that may be available for constructing the dyke trails and what the PARC map calls the multi-purpose area. We actually checked on that in connection with including the dyke trails in the PARC concept, and the city could either start by talking to us or go about it some other way, but the point is that the initial investigation would be wide-ranging but can also be done efficiently by drawing on readily available collaboration.

Listening to the Lands = PARC

This post simply illustrates the concept of listening to the Garden City Lands in the context of legal reality and the best available expertise. There have been many fascinating visions for the lands, and large aspects of most of them can fit with this “PARC concept.” This blog has tried to capture those visions in other posts, and you can access them from here (starting with the earliest at the bottom) and here. You can also download this post as 1-page PDFs: English text or Traditional Chinese text, and bilingual concept map.

When we look and listen, the Garden City Lands tell us what’s good for them.

In the graphic below, the underlying image is a satellite view in rainy season. Wetter areas look darker. Notice, for example, the light “clean clay fill” in the northwest corner and the darker—and wetter—lower-lying land south of it.

More subtly, several of the labeled areas convey the close-range view of Michael Wolfe, who knows and loves the ecology of the lands. He spent time with them this spring to map where he found native species, streams, and more.

A few streams caught the satellite’s eye, but Michael located a hidden one with banks of abundant cloudberries and sphagnum. It’s east of the green “ecology dyke trails” label and parallel to it, easy to miss but well worth conserving.

Aspects like that are the lands’ way of showing us the “restorable sphagnum bog,” which can be saved with dyking that holds in the acidic bog water and lets precipitation raise the water table. Michael was recording Nature’s wishes when he drew a slanting and winding western border, which could be the future route of a dike trail.

In the northeast, Michael found none of the living sphagnum moss that enables a sphagnum bog. Still, it remains a field of ancient peat. With the right planting method and water levels, that’s an ideal base for regenerating sphagnum. The city would witness the rebirth of a bog in its midst.

Although the bog ecosystem of the Garden City Lands is in critical shape, the published resources of the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association prove there are Canadian experts who could help.

Also, the 2008 Lulu Island Bog book describes efforts to save bog remnants east of the Garden City Lands, and we can learn from the scant success.

Leading-edge care is essential. Deep commitment will enable full recovery.

Agriculture expert Kent Mullinix says the higher land in the northwest is suited to orchard trees and farm animals, which would rather not stand in water. South of that, the soil is more organic. With drainage, it can become productive for growing.

The areas for agricultural education and community farms and gardens could be crisscrossed by trails to feed visitors’ interest while prompting respect for what others grow.

The Garden City Lands have cousins, the Terra Nova Rural Park and Natural Area far to the west, role models to imitate in adapted ways. Farming groups outgrowing the Terra Nova Sharing Farm in the rural park would make good early adopters of community farms on the lands, and Food Bank clients might be able to help grow their food there.

In time, the 120,000 residents projected for the city centre may require 25 acres for community gardeners on the lands. They’d grow culturally good food, chat with their garden neighbors and passers-by, and savor the settings of mountains and woods.

Around the west entrance, the most disturbed part of the lands is labeled “multi-purpose area.” Clean clay fill, which would be brought in for trail-bearing dykes, could also extend the existing firm ground. That would suit buildings like a multi-purpose community barn and farmgate market, along with a little parking.

In the southwest corner, nesting birds and native bees reminded Michael that the water conditions and vegetation there are just right for them. Bee expert Brian Campbell tells me that native bees are best for pollinating native plants. Some species don’t fly far from their nests, but they can be helped to find homes where their work is needed. For natural harmony, the “habitat” corner calls for distinct handling.

Those who listen to the Garden City Lands love to share the joy. They envision peaceful gathering places, tai chi beside reservoir lakes, theme playgrounds, lookouts, and lots of interpretive signs on all-weather trails for walking, cycling, and access.

By B.C. law this ALR land is agricultural, by nature it cries out for conservation, and as green wellness space in the city centre it’s vital for recreation. So the Garden City Lands can be a great “PARC,” which is more than a nod to bilingualism en francais. As PARC, they’re Parkland for Agriculture, Recreation, and Conservation.

The prospects are exciting. When we listen to the lands, enthusiasm is natural.

Where sports fields don’t and do belong

I once thought a space for soccer fields could co-exist with Agricultural Land Reserve uses on the Garden City Lands. I was wrong. It would be fatal.

Luckily, a window on the idea slid open in a televised council meeting after public outcry prompted council to correct the Metro mapping of the lands to comply with their protection in the ALR.

Two councillors talked about areas of grass sports fields. One divided the lands into 80 acres of bog and 56 acres of sports on trucked-in topsoil.

It was said that the sports area would produce food if the need arose. That’s not reaslistic. Otherwise, the lands would already be meeting food-growing needs such as community gardens for the city centre.

Since buying the lands was a large investment, surely there should at least be an expert plan for the best ALR uses by now, 18 months later.

Re sports fields, the context is that the city cut back on upkeep in local parks when youth soccer moved to artificial turf. Let’s start restoring local fields, including contours and other aids to runoff. Drainage would be better than on the Garden City Lands, and community wellness would be better served too.

In any case, sports fields are not an ALR use. The Agricultural Land Commission can approve them for good reason, but there’s no honestly good reason for them on the lands.

Just as a scenario, pretend the commission swallows a lie. Wetland gets paved for parking and converted to grass fields, which are underused. By then the lands are no longer an agricultural unit, so they get excluded from the ALR more easily.

That story ends with artificial fields, giant sports structures, and parking lots. Our green legacy in the city centre dies.

Each passing day with no expert plan deepens the risks and losses. We’re losing the bog ecosystem, the option of an urban-agriculture partnership with Kwantlen University, food security, and more. For nothing.

What does our goal mean?

“Steward the Garden City Lands in the ALR for agriculture, recreation & conservation for community wellness.” That’s the caption on the front of the bookmark (shown above) that the Garden City Lands Coalition was happy to give to almost six hundred visitors to the World Food Day Celebration in the Richmond Public Library last Saturday. It expresses the goal of the citizens who strive to save the lands from non-ALR uses like big inappropriate buildings and for appropriate ALR uses.

While enjoying the World Food Day experience, I realized that a post that discusses the goal would be helpful for many of those good people, as well as for others who didn’t manage to be there. Here goes.

The Garden City Lands is a large green space in the City Centre area of Richmond. The size is usually stated as 136 acres. (A detail: Because of smaller parcels on the north, south, and west edges that aren’t usually counted, it is actually over 140 acres.)

The ALR is the Agricultural Land Reserve, British Columbia’s land bank that provides legal protection for the province’s scarce fertile land. The Garden City Lands have always been in the ALR, and they were confirmed to belong in the ALR by decisions of the Agricultural Land Commission (the tribunal for ALR matters) in 2006 and 2009.

The founders of the ALR wisely tried to include all land that was suitable for agriculture, even if it might be best used for conservation and related kinds of open-land recreation. The whole range of uses is “ALR uses.”

It happens that the Garden City Lands is zoned as Agriculture by the City of Richmond as well as provincially (ALR). On Metro Vancouver’s “land use designation” map, the Garden City Lands are to be called “Conservation & Recreation.” The provincial zoning has precedence, so the Metro designation will not change anything. It just implies that the ALR uses of the lands will include emphases on conservation and open-land park recreation, along with agriculture.

It also happens that the appropriate uses for the Garden City Lands are a blend of agriculture, conservation, and recreation, and it can even be said that the entire lands are fully each of those things at the same time. I’ll leave that for another post, “Listening to the Lands = PARC.”

Since the Garden City Lands are a wonderful expanse of Richmond-owned parkland, the citizens of the local area (the City Centre, which needs parkland) and the whole community should benefit from them. The final word in our goal, wellness, means physical, mental, and social health, and community wellness is a goal of Richmond’s parks. For optimal community wellness from the parks system, it is important that the lands be used in their unique ALR ways that complement what the other parks (mostly non-ALR parks) can do for wellness.

There is one more word in the goal, the first one, Steward. The purpose of the ALR is not just to protect fertile land but also to encourage appropriate active use, and the Garden City Lands Coalition urges the whole community to take responsibility for that.

After all that explanation, I have a confession to make. The goal that the Garden City Lands Coalition has expressed on behalf of the community could actually be expressed simply as “Keep the lands in the ALR.” The rest is implicit. Furthermore, our goal is basically just a reflection of the legal reality that the Richmond-owned parkland called the Garden City Lands is in the ALR and has been strongly confirmed to belong there. We state the goal in more words than that because people find the longer version clearer.

Even though our goal is the legal reality, powerful parties have used every means at great expense to overcome that legal reality, and we know for certain that they have not given up. We work toward the goal without pay and at our own expense. Why? Because the Garden City Lands are a unique legacy from Richmond Past that we, the community, must somehow save and steward for the  as a priceless legacy for today’s needs and “our children’s children” in Richmond Future.

Let’s end with the back of the bookmark (shown below) that we shared with visitors to the World Health Day Celebration. It shows a little of what we’re passionate about.

World Food Day Feastival at a great price

Update: The World Food Day Celebration went well. It was great to meet so many citizens and receive such a warm response. Thank you everyone, especially the Friends of Garden City who staffed our booth so well: Ying Wang, who coordinated it, Carol Day, who set it up, plus Richard Lee, Chak Au, Michael Wolfe, Bruno Vernier, and other Friends of Garden City who helped in impromptu ways.

On Saturday, Oct. 15, enjoy the 6th annual World Food Day Celebration at the Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate. It includes free food prepared by Chef Ian Lai and free movies at a film festival. The event poster cleverly promotes it as the Film Feastival.

The main event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with many food-related groups participating with booths. The films continue until 5 p.m. All at no charge!

Food security is one of the main motivating goals for the Garden City Lands Coalition, and we have a booth at the celebration. We hope you’ll drop by.

The Film Feastival features three films:

• Food Security: It’s in Your Hands, 11 a.m. –1 p.m.
  (YouTube preview here.)
• Dirt: The Movie, 1–3 p.m. (YouTube preview.)
• The Garden, 3–5 p.m.
  (YouTube preview.)

For good reason, the World Food Day Celebration is always a popular event: for a start, it’s a way to change the world and the community for the better at an unbeatable price, thanks to the sponsors.

The celebration is organized by Arzeena Hamir and the Richmond Food Security Society.

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Want more details about the Film Feastival?

Food Security—It’s in Your Hands: This documentary features food producers and farmers of Vancouver Island. They struggle to provide a healthy food supply for Island residents in the face of corporate agricultural conglomerates and a population that often chooses cheaper imported food. (Preview.)

Dirt!: Industrial farming, mining, and urban development have endangered the soil. What results? Droughts, starvation, floods, and climate change. How can humans reconnect to dirt—the living skin of the Earth? (Preview)

The Garden: From the ashes of the Los Angeles riots arose a lush 14-acre community garden, the largest of its kind in the United States . . . . . until bulldozers threatened its future. (Preview.)

World Food Day is a worldwide event of FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.