In addition to proposing the removal of 118 acres of land from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) near Piccadilly Mall, the city is proposing to remove 146 acres of ALR land near the airport for light industrial use.
The need to do this seems questionable considering the city commissioned a report for the last official community plan (OCP) that questions the need for more designated industrial land in Salmon Arm, and the city hasn’t sought out new data so there is little analysis going into this.
Anecdotally, there is very little industrial development taking place in Salmon Arm and there are industrial sites that have been for sale for months and some for years. This begs the question, why apply to remove such a large tract of ALR land?
Another troubling aspect of this is that it has been put forward the city may share some of the infrastructure costs required to connect city services to this area. As these costs are usually borne by the developers this will essentially function as a hand out to these property owners as it would increase the value of the land.
The infill industrial sites that we already have many of in Salmon Arm are adequate at this time. We aren’t going to attract an Amazon distribution centre or another large-scale light industrial tenant as we don’t have the workforce or the market, so there is not a need to open such a large area.
These ALR land exclusion applications are being proposed by our city at a time when the need to protect agricultural land is greater than ever. Farmland supports community resiliency by providing opportunities for local food production, flood control and fire suppression, and when managed sustainably, supports biodiversity and ecosystem services like clean drinking water, carbon sequestration and wildlife habitat.
I understand that quality jobs and economic development are important but if we really don’t need this then why are we doing it?
Claire Askew
