Revisiting the vision

A year ago, several Save-Garden-City presenters at the public hearing into the now-rejected ALR-exclusion application used a conceptual map as a visual aid. The map, with some discussion, remains available on the “Future” page of the Garden City Lands website. In this post, I’ll begin with the relevant excerpt and then, from this year-later perspective, [...]

Invitation to Canada Lands’ president

This post is written by a guest blogger, Richmond’s Olga Tkatcheva, a quality assurance professional who is a City Centre activist.
I read with interest Carol Southgate’s article where she is talking about the mandate of the Canada Lands Company to dispose federal properties like the Garden City Lands to “produce the optimal benefit for the [...]

Keeping the Holm fires burning

There is a good news about Wendy Holm of Bowen Island, who has been a strong Save-Garden-City supporter. Wendy, a professional agrologist with an impressive resume as a leader, writer, and humanitarian, has fearlessly stood up for agrologists who dare to give second opinions.
In dealing with the Garden City Lands issue, we have seen [...]

First-hand studying the Lands

Above, Councillor Harold Steves pauses to listen to some Richmond citizens near the main entrance to the Garden City Lands. He had just finished walking the lands, making notes at intervals to further develop his extensive first-hand knowledge.
In contrast to that approach, the failed applications to exclude the Garden City Lands from BC’s Agricultural Land Reserve [...]

Optimal community value – CLC

This post is written by guest blogger Carol Southgate of Richmond. A blueberry grower, Carol is a member of the Richmond Agricultural Advisory Committee.
Now that the Agricultural Land Commission has shown foresight in its decision to retain the Garden City Lands in the ALR, it is time for Canada Lands Company to revisit its mandate, [...]

Visiting the patient lands

Last Sunday’s eco-tour found the Garden City Lands still looking battered, since the lush vegetation was mowed down last fall. Despite that, the setting was somehow still beautiful, as you may sense from the above photo. Whatever stage the lands are in, there are always advantages to it.
On this occasion, it was much easier than [...]

Renegotiation — the basics

This topic was addressed in an earlier post, but this post is a current replacement.
The “Spotlighting Renegotiation Provisions” post and other blog posts and letters to Richmond newspapers have referred to sections of the basic Garden City Lands agreement, the memorandum of understanding (MOU). This post provides (a) key MOU excerpts related to renegotiation, mediation, and [...]

Why bother?

I’m asked why I put so much into this one issue, the Garden City Lands.
Well, it seems to me that a large green space on the edge of a city centre is better than urban sprawl there and that nothing is safe in an agricultural land reserve if its guardian gives up fertile land just [...]

Completing the reconciliation circle

A brilliantly written article by aboriginal issues lawyer Keith Clark of Lang Michener LLP is relevant to the Garden City Lands issue. Mr. Clark, who brought considerable insight to the Garden City Lands public hearings a year ago, later wrote “Why B.C.’s Premier approved the Musqueam Reconciliation Agreement.”
Point by point, the article shows that the [...]

Save-Garden-City MLA candidates

Update: An updated version of this post is dated April 22, 2009.
The Garden City Lands issue has had a big effect on two elections in Richmond, first at the federal level and then at the city level. On May 12, 2009, it could well influence the provincial election.
Unlike the federal and city governments, the provincial [...]

The “No Development Covenant”

Update: This post was edited on June 14, 2009, and we know from a reliable source that the No Development Covenant* the post addresses was still in place at that time. We need Richmond council to ensure that it remains in place unless it is removed by agreement at the conclusion of satisfactory renegotiations of [...]