Vantreight Decision

I have been meaning to write something about this but life got in the way.

Central Saanich has given fourth reading approval for the project - here is the A Channel report on it



The decision is a good one and reinforces building more housing next to existing suburban development and on land that has no value for agriculture and has no wilderness values.   Ideally the site should have been the home to a much denser development because we need a lot more housing to be built in this region.  Each house built reduces the demand a bit and ultimately keep prices from rising.

The development should allow for the finances of the farm to be in a better situation that it is now.   Most farmers are land rich and cash poor and have no easy mechanism to allow for a farm to pass from one generation to another one.

The Vantreights should recognized for taking the single biggest action to protect farm land in this region since the start of the ALR, that being the consolidation of titles in larger properties.   A number of the properties are now large enough to make them functional for some form of farming long into the future.   The Vantreight land is now some of the only farm land in the CRD that has a covenant on title stopping future subdivision.  One of the lots will be 177 acres which makes it one of the largest fee simple titles in the CRD.

The loss of the farm would have meant the loss of one of the last farms with the infrastructure in place to produce any significant volume of produce.   We now have the Vantreight farm around for another generation at least and likely longer.