Rethinking the ALR with Strata Farms

We have a housing crisis in Canada where affordability has gone through the roof. Like everything, housing affordability is dictated by supply and demand. If there is more demand than supply, then the price will go up until either supply increases or demand decreases.

One problem is land is expensive, especially in places like British Columbia where mountains and water bodies limit the number of towns and population centers that can exist.

Currently, much of the Province and the Lower Mainland non-geographically locked land base is locked in the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR), which was formed in the 1970s to protect potentially farmable land from being paved over for industrial or residential purposes. This made sense at first as it allowed city centers to establish themselves and ensured their was grazing land for animals. The actual borders of the ALR far exceeded actual farm land, but owners could apply to be exempted from it which has happened over time.

I grew up in Langley on the edge of the ALR and now live in Chilliwack in a similar interface. We have million dollar homes backing on to a multimillion dollar estate home with horse grazing and the knowledge that such a lifestyle may be out of grasp event for middle class families. The Agricultural Land Commission rules limit the amount of residential structures that can be built on those properties so that while one single family mega mansion is allowed, only under certain circumstances can you get even a second dwelling on a large acreage. One one hand this does protect much of the land, and many land owners do plant berries or crops on their properties (or at least engage in crop share), but the reality is that with land prices becoming so expensive, the current rules no longer serve B.C.'s needs or interest.

This does not mean a free for all for pavers. We want farms. However, what good are farms if people who want to farm can't afford to own them, and those who can afford to own them have to rely on foreign workers because locals don't want to work on a farm for 2 months a year for a job, even if the pay per hour is competitive.

What we don't want are sprawl or more underutilized farm land. Why is one 5400 square foot home allowed, but not 4 1200 square foot homes or even 54 100 square foot small homes.

The current rules mean than in many cases farmers with more than one child either have to unfairly gift property one of their children or have their farms sold on death as families cannot have more than one or two dwellings on their homes. Under current rules, farmers may have a temporary bunkhouse for workers, but cannot offer families their own space.

I propose opening up the agricultural land reserve to permit far more flexibility by creating new Strata Farm legislation that will allow strata farm corporations to offer new ownership models based on cumulative buildings on ALR properties to allow new types of ownership and occupancy. To ensure that this does not get taken advantage of by owners or tenants, all occupants will be required to be engaged in a certain amount of farm activities on the property (with exemptions for retired farm workers) or family members. I will also propose rules than encourage modular, RV, and small scale homes to preserve future usability of the lands for agricultural purposes or encourage residences to be attached or over existing farm buildings and limit buildings to a portion of the farm property.

In practice, a farm owner could build 20 small 100-150 foot homes on their property and rent them out for below market with a condition that the occupants help out a few weekends in planting and in growing season. Or could have room for a certain number of RV or modular homes that could be available for seasonal help.

Further, Strata Farms corporations legislation will allow current farms to convert into collective ownership. Similar to existing strata ownership, but with agricultural activity requirements, strata farm corporations could exist as RV and modular home parks, smaller homes, or even small apartment complex above barns or adjacent to greenhouses. While all owners would have a reasonable farming requirement themselves, the rules would permit strata farm corporations to hire full time employees as part of their farm activities (and strata farm corporations could own separate farm corporations).

These simple changes would spur on huge benefits for B.C. Government would work with the private sector to pre-approve prefabricated structure designs that could be made in B.C mills or otherwise be constructed in province and easily build. These change would create a huge abundance of affordable rentals with very little government funding. Thousands of spaces could be added to the market on existing properties.