Two controversial bids to turn pieces of Port Coquitlam farm land into RV and boat parking lots were punted to the Agricultural Land Commission this week.
Tuesday, the city’s committee of council reviewed the applications for “non-use farm uses” to legitimize the commercial operations on existing gravel pads at 2842 and 2820 Burns Rd., where dozens of people are now storing their recreational vehicles.
The issue flared up last year when some 100 owners made a delegation at city hall about the challenges of finding RV and boat storage in the region. The community and intergovernmental committee directed staff to stay enforcement until March 2019.
At their July 16 meeting, councillors spoke about the need to protect agricultural land and blasted the two property owners for partially converting their 10- and 13.5-acre lots, which Coun. Glenn Pollock estimated would cost “millions of dollars” to restore.
“We shouldn’t be allowing this,” said Coun. Nancy McCurrach, adding she had called three businesses and found space available to park large RVs and boats in Abbotsford.
Still, Mayor Brad West said he suspects RV owners would storm city chambers again if council rejected the bids.
“This is an issue that doesn’t have an easy solution to it,” he said, noting property in the Agricultural Land Reserve should be used for farming.
West said he also believes the two land owners were putting forward non-farm use applications to pre-empt future enforcement by the Agricultural Land Commission.
The mayor said if the ALC approves the non-conforming uses, city council is under no obligation to change the official community plan and grant rezoning or business licences to sanction the storage operations.
“We are asking the ALC to do their job," he said.
Meanwhile, the committee on Tuesday recommended council change the zoning bylaw to increase the maximum length of an RV parked in a residential or agricultural zone from eight to 10 metres. That topic will be considered at the July 23 council meeting.
