Delta has pulled off deals to save some of the community's agricultural land.
Earlier this year, the municipality completed a complex series of property swaps with the school district, resulting in approximately eight hectares (20 acres) at the corner of Highway 17 and 56th Street in Tsawwassen going into Delta's hands.
That property was combined with an adjacent 7.2 hectares (18 acres) Delta purchased from the Century Group late last year, as well as a municipally-owned piece next door, to form one larger parcel.
Already all within the Agricultural Land Reserve, the properties were consolidated into a 31-hectare (78-acre) piece this summer, showing that Delta is leading by example, said Coun. Ian Paton.
"All we hear about are the attempts to subdivide ALR land or speculators holding onto ALR land hoping to take them out, but we're consolidating ALR land into a bigger piece that will go back into production. I can't think of anyone else anywhere even doing that," said Paton, a longtime Ladner farmer.
Comprising about 16 hectares (40 acres), the Delta owned parcel had been leased to Snow Farms, an organic farming operation, for the last 10 years. The deal with the school board saw Delta give the school district $1.2 million in cash.
The parcel owned by Century had been in the company's hands for the last six years. Century purchased it for over $2 million but had been trying to sell it for over two years without any luck. It was listed at $1.95 million when Delta first expressed interest in buying it, but Paton noted after an initial offer was turned down by Century, it took a while for both sides to work out a fair price, settling on $1.55 million. Century Group president Sean Hodgins, who is proposing transferring 80 per cent of his agriculturallyzoned Southlands property to Delta in a separate development application, told the Optimist he was glad to sell the property at around the going per-acre rate.
The Century parcel had not been farmed in a long time and had become nothing more than a dump site by the previous owners, said Paton, who noted it cost Delta another $177,000 to clean up the property.
Under a new lease with Delta, Snow Farms is working to have the former Century parcel, which at one time was being marketed as a "holding property" for potential investors, certified for organic farming. Saying he can't remember when that parcel was ever farmed, Paton noted it still needs a lot of work to get it into soil-based production, work that will be undertaken by Snow Farms.
The organic farmer will eventually operate the entire consolidated site, he added.
