Province allows 150 acres out of ALR Lansdowne partners with Bosa Properties

Maria Rantanen MRANTANEN@RICHMOND-NEWS

“Dumbfounded” was how Mayor Malcolm Brodie described how he felt after hearing the province decided to remove a significant chunk of farmland in east Richmond from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).

Last year, city council unanimously voted against an application by Ecowaste to pull the 150-acre property out of the ALR in order to build several recycling facilities

However, the province decided by an order in council to allow the parcel which has been used as a construction demolition landfill for more than 50 years to be removed from the ALR

“I’m absolutely dumbfounded that a government that prides itself on the preservation of agricultural land can do this and I don’t understand it,” Brodie said

City council asked its staff to analyze the decision and come back to them with options on how to proceed

With the landfill getting close to capacity and just a few facilities to dump construction and demolition waste in southern B C , Ecowaste is pleased with the decision

“We’re super excited we see life beyond 2025,” Christian Dietrich, Ecowaste’s vicepresident of recycling and waste services, told the Richmond News

He noted they would have had to shut down the landfill in two years if this decision hadn’t come through

This order in council, however, sidesteps the Agricultural Land Commission’s (ALC) decision-making process and city council’s ability to stop the application, although, according to the provincial announcement, the ALC was consulted and agreed with the decision

Coun Laura Gillanders questioned whether other properties in the ALR are now “vulnerable ”

Coun Carol Day suggested the city file a freedom-of-information request to see who spoke to the ALC on this matter

The owner of Lansdowne Shopping Centre announced it’s partnering with Bosa Properties to redevelop its 50acre property on No. 3 Road. But shovels probably won’t be in the ground for another two years.

Vanprop, which owns the 1970s covered mall, announced the partnership last week, just a couple weeks after submitting an application for the first development phase to the City of Richmond.

They hope to have it before city council in the early fall and to start building in March 2025.

This portion of the development consists of three towers of residential and a few retail shops.

They are proposing 1,075 residential units, including 150 affordable rental units and 150 market rental units.

With a change to the Official Community Plan (OCP) approved a couple years ago, Vanprop could eventually build about 4,000 homes at the current mall site and rebuild its retail offerings.

The plan is for the current shopping centre to be eventually demolished and retail would be offered at street level rather than in an enclosed mall. The submitted application consists of about three-quarters of the first phase development out of seven planned phases, explained Vanprop CEO Kevin Hoffman.

“It’s a significant amount of development to do at one time,” Hoffman said.