Richmond, BC – On Monday, February 26th, Richmond Citizens’ Association will present Richmond City Council with a petition to reduce home size in Richmond’s Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR). The petitioners support reducing home size to a maximum of 500m2 (5382 sqft), with a moratorium on new applications until the new home size is adopted as a bylaw. ALR properties are rapidly being converted into urban estates, complete with tennis courts, swimming pools, indoor movie theatres, and more. Large estates cause land to be withdrawn from agricultural use, as well as land prices to skyrocket past what genuine farming can support Homes on ALR can currently be built to 1000m2 (10,794 sqft) in Richmond, double the Provincial guideline maximum size of 500m2. Provincial guidelines also stipulate that ALR house size maximums should be equivalent to adjacent urban areas. In Richmond, average house sizes are around 330m2. The discrepancy between the two sizes causes farmland to be disproportionately targeted for speculative residential development. “Speculators want to build as big as possible. Why build on a city lot, when you can build almost 11,000 square feet on farmland?” says Richmond Citizens’ member Judie Schneider. Homes on ALR are also not subject to the 20% foreign homebuyer’s tax, creating a 20% incentive for foreign speculators to purchase farmland. Again, farmland is disproportionately targeted for residential development. Since the tax was introduced in 2016, Richmond farmland prices have increased 300%. “Real farmers can’t afford to buy land to farm, and can’t even find land to lease,” says Richmond Citizens’ member Jack Trovato. “And if they can find a lease, it’s tenuous, so farmers can’t make the long term improvements they need.” These estate homes are also attracting illegal and grey area activities: booze can, gambling den, prostitution, violence, illegal hotel, birthing hotel, money laundering, and more. Richmond Citizens’ Association has collected thousands of signatures on paper and online in support of lowering the maximum house size to 500m2. Residents have been enthusiastic and highly supportive of an immediate reduction in ALR house size. “Residents know these aren’t farmhouses. These are estates for speculators and the ultra–rich. People are fed up with these people destroying farmland and getting tax breaks at the same time,” says Richmond Citizens’ member Kelly Greene. Richmond has some of the best farmlands in all of British Columbia. Less than 1% of the land in BC is of similar quality, with much of it under threat of development in Greater Vancouver. With respect to climate change, it is vital that we do everything in our power to protect farmland for future generations.