Farmland Trust Recommendations for the OCP Renewal

Below please find the Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust’s recommendations for the OCP renewal, aligned with our mandate to acquire, manage and lease land for farming and community gardens.

Of the Common Ground Consensus, we explicitly endorse: 

Proposal 1: GANGES SHOULD BE REZONED

Proposal 18: MAKE GROWING FOOD A ZONING REQUIREMENT FOR BUILDING ON

AGRICULTURAL LAND

Our comments: Much of the ALR land within and around Ganges has already been used for government buildings i.e. schools. What remains is of variable quality and has always been under pressure of development. The goal of the agricultural community is not to protect any particular ALR designation, but to protect the food-growing capacity of Salt Spring overall. One way to allow more development of the affordable housing we need, while preserving or enhancing our food-growing capacity would be to allow development on ALR land in Ganges on the condition that food be actively grown on site.

This could be accomplished through: 

• Landscaping requirements of 10% for higher-density lots, requiring that a minimum percentage of landscaped area be dedicated to food production

• Recommend density bonus or amenity bonus to reward developers for including resident gardens / food cultivation spaces - ie Allow developers to build additional height in exchange for community amenities like rooftop or courtyard gardens, on-site community garden plots with water and composting facilities.

The Farmland Trust would like to see this as just one part of a much wider push to explicitly include land in food production that is not in the ALR, supported by land-use bylaws, to encourage decentralized agriculture all over Salt Spring.  

Proposal 2: EXPAND CLUSTERED HOUSING TO ENCOURAGE ALTERNATIVE HOUSING

The development of clusters of higher-density housing need to be supported by increased food production. The FLT supports expanding the existing definition and permitted uses of clustered housing - with additions to the ALR made elsewhere on the island where ALR land is used for development in the Ganges core, on the condition that the replacements be of equal or greater productive capacity. Such housing projects should integrate on-site sustainability measures such as shared water capture and wastewater systems designed to protect groundwater, and micro-scale local food production to enhance local resilience and reduce ecological impact.

Proposal 8:  INCREASE NUMBER OF STOREYS ALLOWED BY THE OCP

Our comments: Given the ALC’s restrictions on how many residences, and what size, can be built on ALR land, it makes sense to allow farmers to build up instead of out, reducing their footprint on farmland. 

Proposal 11: ENCOURAGE CONSTRUCTION OF TINY HOMES

Proposal 14: FARM HOUSING REQUIREMENTS NEED SPECIAL CONSIDERATION

Our comments: Many farms operate based on an exchange of labour for accommodation and food - the Wwoofing model shows up in various forms on the island as a means to attract young people to farms and fulfil the need for seasonal work. This Wwoofing model has matured to the point where farms are becoming mini-villages, with multi generational groups working the land and living together in collections of tiny homes (11) and co-operative housing. These small nodes of increased density are arguably required for the more labour intensive regenerative practices that a changing climate and water scarcity demand. Enabling and encouraging clustered housing would aggregate resource use while providing secure tenancy to farm workers, fostering reliable farm-based livelihoods and nodes of interreliance. 

Any development that increases population capacity needs to support increasing food production as well.  We urge planners to take into account the irreplaceable value of existing agricultural land in wisely crafting pathways for both people, and foodways, to flourish. 

Mission Circle, Salt Spring Island Farmland Trust

Tony Beck, Paz Q. Rainville, Valerie Perkins, Jenn LeBlanc, Jon Cooksey, Sheila Dobie