In the 2024 Salmon Arm official community plan (OCP) draft, the city has proposed the removal of two areas of land from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR): a 146-acre block around the airport and a 118-acre area stretching from Shuswap Street to 10th Street SW near Piccadilly Mall (the “ALR Island”).
These proposed ALR exclusion zones act in contradiction to OCP objectives that seek to: “incorporate urban agriculture in the community” and “protect farm land and farm operations” (draft OCP, page 11); “Encourage... incentives and support for new farmers to obtain land” (pg. 13); “preserve and protect current and future food production within the City boundaries” (pg. 94); and ensure that ALR land continues to be a “source for local food and employment in the community” (pg. 12).
The city’s desire to remove these areas from the ALR points to a larger systemic problem wherein the city is focused on a growth model based on the expansion of road networks and other infrastructure building, which is crippling the city budget. The underpass is a case in point. The city has included a drawing of a proposed new road network near the airport in the OCP draft (pg. 22) and has presented some different possibilities for where the funds to build these roads could come from. But even when developers build the roads, unless it’s a strata road which often it isn’t, the city then is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep, and the taxes recuperated often don’t cover these costs over the long term. The city gets a short-term boost but, over the lifespan of that asset, the proceeds are negative.
Mayor and council make decisions about how to allocate our tax dollars and these dollars could be allocated differently if they chose to. There is tremendous potential in our region to grow the agriculture sector and I urge the city to use the OCP as a tool to limit the expansion of more costly roads, and to stand up for farmland while also supporting initiatives to boost local food production.
Claire Askew
