Multilevel Governing in British Columbia: a Case Study of Residential Development and the Agricultural Land Reserve in the City of Richmond
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Multilevel Governing in British Columbia: A Case Study of Residential Development and the Agricultural Land Reserve in the City of Richmond by Sara Obidi B.A. (Geography), The University of British Columbia, 2015 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Urban Studies in the Urban Studies Program Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences © Sara Obidi 2020 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2020 Copyright in this work rests with the author. Please ensure that any reproduction or re-use is done in accordance with the relevant national copyright legislation. Approval Name: Sara Obidi Degree: Master of Urban Studies Title: Multilevel Governing in British Columbia: A Case Study of Residential Development and the Agricultural Land Reserve in the City of Richmond Examining Committee: Chair: Meg Holden Professor of Urban Studies and Geography Patrick J. Smith Senior Supervisor Professor of Urban Studies and Political Science Karen J. Ferguson Supervisor Professor of Urban Studies and History Dion Curry External Examiner Senior Lecturer Department of Political and Cultural Studies Swansea University Date Defended/Approved: February 27, 2020 ii Ethics Statement iii Abstract This thesis presents a locally specific case study of the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) in the City of Richmond, British Columbia, providing an examination of multi-level governance and government ‘on the ground’ in Canada. The last several years represents a significant period of policy and political change, at both the City of Richmond and the Province of British Columbia, intended to protect ALR land from residential and accessory residential uses as well as the outright exclusion of land from the Reserve. Yet, a lack a cooperation and policy coordination between, across and within federal, provincial, regional, and municipal scales has allowed such exclusions and the increased residential and accessory residential development of land within the ALR to occur. Such policy discord and inconsistencies are largely attributable to several challenges inherent in the multi-jurisdictional character of the ALR with sometimes competing and conflicting interests between government scales and conflicting private and public interests. Most significant has been a lack of political will to act and the passing off of jurisdictional responsibility between government levels. Moving forward, further province-wide regulation limiting non-agricultural uses of ALR lands while allowing for continued municipal flexibility in regulating below these provincial benchmarks is needed. Such increased provincial regulation would allow for greater consistency between municipalities as well as urban and agricultural areas within cities, reducing the appeal of ALR lands for residential and accessory residential development. Keywords: ALR; ALC; City of Richmond; Multi-Level Governance iv Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank Patrick Smith for his patience, understanding and guidance throughout this process. I have been extremely fortunate to have such an outstanding supervisor who genuinely cares about the success of his students and could not have completed this program without his support. Thank you also to my defense committee Karen Ferguson and Dion Curry, whose feedback in helping to focus and clarify my work has been much appreciated. Additionally, I would like to thank the staff at the City of Richmond, the British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Land Commission for their assistance with this project. Thank you as well to this study interviewees and those who allowed the use of their personal archival material in this study. The gracious contribution of their time and expertise on this subject matter was invaluable to the completion of this work. Finally, thank you to my family and friends. Your support and encouragement throughout graduate school have made the completion of this degree possible, even when it seemed that there was no end in sight. I am extremely thankful and share this achievement with you. v Table of Contents Approval ............................................................................................................................ ii Ethics Statement ............................................................................................................... iii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ iv Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... v Table of Contents ............................................................................................................. vi List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures................................................................................................................... ix List of Acronyms ................................................................................................................ x Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1. The Creation of the B.C. Agricultural Land Reserve ............................................... 2 1.2. The ALR’s Success in Protecting Agricultural Land from Non-Farm Uses in a Multi-jurisdictional Context ................................................................................................ 6 1.3. Research Problem and Question ............................................................................ 8 1.4. The Significance of a City of Richmond Case Study ............................................. 11 Chapter 2. Literature Review ..................................................................................... 18 2.1. Regional Planning and the “Cities in a Sea of Green Vision” Seeking to Protect an Agricultural Land Base from Non-Agricultural Development ........................................... 18 2.1.1. The Impacts of Inter-governmental Relations on The Development of the Regional “Vision” ......................................................................................................... 18 2.1.2. The Challenges of Implementing the Regional “Vision” within a Multi- jurisdictional Context ................................................................................................... 21 2.2. Multi-Level Governance in British Columbia ......................................................... 25 2.2.1. Multi-Level Governance and its Impacts on Policy Cooperation and Coordination ................................................................................................................ 25 2.2.2. Policy Creation and Change in the Context of a Multi-jurisdictional ALR ...... 30 2.3. The Peri-Urban as a ‘Contested Ground’ for Policy Development and Change ... 34 2.4. Past Studies of the ALR and Current Gaps in Scholarly Literature ....................... 37 Chapter 3. Methodology ............................................................................................ 40 3.1. Documentation ...................................................................................................... 40 3.2. Interviews .............................................................................................................. 40 3.3. Land Use Change Analysis Using ArcGIS ............................................................ 41 Chapter 4. Contextual Background .......................................................................... 45 4.1. Federal Government Policies Impacting Non-Agricultural Development of B.C.’s ALR .............................................................................................................................. 45 4.2. Provincial Policies Impacting Non-Agricultural Development of B.C.’s ALR ......... 48 4.3. Metropolitan Policies Impacting Non-Agricultural Development of B.C.’s ALR ..... 59 4.4. Municipal Policies Impacting Non-Agricultural Development of B.C.’s ALR: The Case of Richmond........................................................................................................... 61 vi Chapter 5. The Challenges of Protecting Agricultural Land from Residential Development in an MLG Context ....................................................................... 76 5.1. Challenges Related to Transparency and Trust .................................................... 76 5.2. A Lack of Accountability and Political Will ............................................................. 78 5.3. The Reactive Nature of Policy Creation and Enforcement .................................... 83 Chapter 6. Exclusion and Non-Farm Use Analysis of ALR land ............................ 85 6.1. Examples of Significant ALR Exclusions in B.C. ................................................... 85 6.2. Total Land Excluded from the ALR in the City of Richmond ................................. 89 6.3. Residential and Accessory Residential Development of ALR Lands in the City of Richmond ........................................................................................................................ 91 Chapter 7. Conclusion and Recommendations .................................................... 100 7.1. Location, Location, Location: A City Nested in Multiple Scales of Land Use Conflict ...........................................................................................................................