Strata Farms
While I strongly believe in preserving local food supply, the current structure of the ALR has served more to preserve million dollar mansions with minimal agricultural productions than to benefit British Columbians. The price of land and current restrictions on dwelling on agricultural property has made it nearly impossible for young British Columbians to take up farming or agriculture, and has made if harder and harder for families to pass farmland down to the next generations. While we don't want to see prime agricultural land be paved over to have more sprawl, we also have to recognize that farm consolidation and stringent agricultural land commission regulation have turned our greenland into estate homes and large commercial ventures that are detached from traditional farming.
I will introduce the concept of strata farms to allow more flexible options to build small homes, prefabricated home or multifamily complexes on farmland in a way which will dramatically expand on farm housing options and lower the barrier for entry into farming. Strata Farm Corporations would run the farm. All owners would be required to have a significant involvement with the farming operation of would face tax consequences similar to the speculation taxes in place, recognizing that farming may be seasonal and that off farm occupations may be the main source of income for many.
The goal of this would be to create significant new housing options as well as increased farm activity. Farms would still be limited in buildable area and permanent coverage, but new flexible rules would allows more manufactures home parks on farms, multifamily units build adjacent to greenhouses or barns, and small scale houses / villages build around perimeters. This would allow both affordable rents supplemented by seasonal farm incomes and also help existing farmers recruit labour by building more than the currently allowed migrant bunkhouses.