Richmond News
After months of consultation and four, marathon public meetings in as many weeks, the City of Richmond has finally set the limit on house sizes on agricultural land at 10,764 square-feet.
However, unlike Monday night’s six-hour, packed public hearing — which ended at 1 a.m. the next day — Wednesday’s continuation of the same culminated with veteran councillor and farmer Harold Steves walking out of the meeting in protest.
Steves’ premature exit — the first time he’s felt it necessary to do such a thing in 30 years — produced the 7-1 vote in favour of the new house size limitations, with Coun. Carol Day the only dissenting voice left. …
Speaking after Wednesday night’s decision, Mayor Malcolm Brodie, while acknowledging that opinion on the controversial subject was divided, said the new limit is “a maximum, not a mandatory number.
“There are reasons why some people in the farming community want bigger houses.”
The figure reached, he said, is quite a “dramatic” reduction from what is happening now, prior to the new bylaws coming in.
“There are many houses in the 18,000-square-feet range and higher and there are people who would like the house sizes to go even larger,” he told the News.
“We had to come up with a reasonable maximum that will allow people (farmers) to achieve their goals,” adding it will be reviewd in six months.
Brodie admitted there is a “third category” out there who “want majestic estates.”
The new rules will take such parties out of the equation, “to a certain extent,” he added.
The bylaw setting out criteria for people to apply for a home bigger than the new limits is an attempt, said Brodie, to “give some structure to the situation.” …