Developer propaganda in Dec. 25 Richmond News

A Dec. 25, 2007, article about the Garden City lands on the Richmond News website provides an overview of the developers’ case. This blog has already addressed some of the main points in “Hopeless? Or one last chance?”, written in the early-morning hours before the Richmond Council meeting on Monday, Dec. 17, which was almost [...]

Space invaders – a B.C. issue

Lately, people keep telling me that the Garden City lands issue is important for the whole province of B.C.
I say yes, it is, and the anti-ALR segment of the development community has been aware of that for a long time. Their view was best expressed in a BCBusiness magazine column by developers’ association president Philip [...]

Richmond Council Meeting Dec. 17

A special meeting of the Richmond council about the Garden City Lands was held on Monday, Dec. 17. There was practically no notice given, and the meeting was at an inconvenient time, 4 p.m. Nevertheless, the crowd filled and overflowed the Anderson Room at City Hall. The meeting was essentially for council to approve the [...]

Hopeless? Or one last chance?

Opinions elicited by Richmond staff from a City-hired lawyer and by Canada Lands from a federal Treasury Board bureaucrat illustrate how the Garden City lands issue is in a mega-mess.
Disappearing contingency rights
If you have time to download 2 MB of PDF file, have a look at the agenda for the Sept. 17, 2007, 4 p.m. special [...]

The risk of lost opportunity

Choosing the best path
First, a few background points: 

It may be unconscionable to remove the Garden City lands from the Agricultural Land Reserve.
There is a community need to free Richmond from the mega-density and traffic congestion that would flow from the develoment plan.
Helping a bad agreement drag on would have a 100% chance of a bad outcome – a loss in [...]

Acting in good faith re ALR-removal process

January 1, 2008, note: This post is outdated in some ways but still provides relevant background information. 
Richmond Council evidently intends to consider:

extending the deadline for removal of the Garden City lands from the Agricultural Land Reserve
once again recommending to the Agricultural Land Commission that the lands be removed

What would be the best course of action [...]

Could we feed our city off the back 55?

Joanne Fox of Richmond has provided food for thought and ultimately perhaps food for mouths in a blog post titled ”Could We Feed Our City off the Back 55?” at a UBC community blog called Terry. An excerpt:
 Now when I say prime real estate, you probably think about condos, apartment complexes, and convention centers. The Garden City green space [...]

Re Plant column, Richmond Review, Dec. 6, 2007

Geoff Plant’s Dec. 6 column demonstrates outstanding rhetorical skills and support for fellow Liberals. Many of us usually support the provincial Liberals, whom Mr. Plant represented in the legislature, but as responsible citizens we need to put partisan politics aside and not support the undermining of the B.C. treaty process. We know that fair and lasting [...]

Coun. Rob Howard’s Dec. 4 Richmond News letter

Coun. Rob Howard’s recent letter to the Richmond News expresses the pro-development view of the Garden City lands issue as well as possible.

Coun. Howard has now recognized that the City of Richmond can get no more than 50% of the Garden City lands, rather than the 70% that he was evidently hoping for when quoted [...]