ALR Report in the News

Last week, we released our report on the Agricultural Land Reserve in the South of Fraser. You can read about the report on a previous blog post, but some of the local media also covered the report. Brian Lewis in from The Province writes:

"While it may appear that private development is responsible for the erosion of the ALR in the south of Fraser, it is actually the public sector that has removed the most land from future farm use in the last decade," writes study author Nathan Pachal, a co-founder of the Langley-based non-profit group South Fraser On Trax, which focuses on regional transportation issues.

Pachal launched his study last year after initial inquires for basic data on local ALR exclusions were met by bureaucratic doors slamming in his face.

Meanwhile Colleen Kimmett from The Tyee wrote on her Food + Farming Blog:

Tony Pellett, a regional planner with the Agricultural Land Commission, said the commission has the authority to approve or deny any transportation project within the ALR. He said transportation projects count as a "use" within the ALR, but the land these projects occupy is rarely officially excluded from the ALR. Instead, it is typically recorded as "eliminated from farm use."

Pachal said this gives the appearance that there's more land in the ALR being farmed than there actually is.