Note: If you support saving Richmond's Garden City Lands within the Agricultural Land Reserve for agricultural and ecological purposes to meet community need, you may wish to receive the Garden City News, a brief newsletter emailed to the Friends of Garden City once or twice a month. To subscribe, simply send this subscribe email.

The Coalition also supports related green initiatives and events. The Garden City Lands blog has just added a Green Events page where you can find or suggest relevant upcoming events.

Our Garden City Lands - green open space or very high density?

• BC's Agricultural Land Commission was asked to exclude the Garden City Lands, 136 acres of prime farmland in Richmond City Centre from the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) so that over half the property could become high density development.
• Good alternatives had been proposed to keep the Lands as green open space in the ALR. The massive public input, evident in the ALC's Garden City Lands section, overwhelmingly opposed the application.
• The federal Minister of Agriculture indicated in a letter to the Garden City Lands Coalition that his department will consider using the lands for a program need if they become available.
• A key agreement expired on Dec. 31, 2008, after Richmond council refused (by a 6-3 vote) to take drastic means to extend it.
• On Feb. 12, 2009, the Garden City Lands panel of B.C.'s Agricultural Land Commission (ALC) REJECTED the application to remove the Lands from the ALR. Here's what we told the commission in a thorough analysis, and here's the commission's decision.
• Under the basic Garden City Lands memorandum of agreement (MOU), which has no expiry date, the City of Richmond will renegotiate with Canada Lands Company and the Musqueam Indian Band to determine the future of the Lands. There could also be occasion for the federal government to become involved.
• Along with unified strategic action by Richmond council, community action on this issue remains very important. Visit the Action page.

• What matters right now is the renegotiation of the basic Garden City Lands agreement, "the MOU." For that step to turn out well, it is crucial for the Garden City Lands community (in Richmond and beyond) to have Canada Lands Company, which is entrusted with the property title, working with us to enable community benefit. For that, Canada Lands needs a very good sense of what will genuinely benefit the community as a legacy for all time. Many defenders of the Garden City Lands have been writing to Canada Lands Company, and the Garden City Lands Coalition has couriered a large (about two hundred pages), organized (in a binder with seventeen tabbed dividers), and highly informed presentation. It is also available here on this website. It is called Save Garden City: An urgent request to Canada Lands Company.

Our free eco-tours, led by conservation biologist/teacher Michael Wolfe, are always popular. The 2009 Biodiversity Tours of the Fraser River Delta took  place on three days in September, Biodiversity Month. For information about them and future tours, see our eco-tours page.

Visit the Richmond's Garden City Lands blog for more bulletins and insights.

In response to Carol Day's letter to the editor, we have provided new action steps on the blog.

The Garden City Lands is active in events like the King George Park one shown above.

To read a PDF file, you may need to download Adobe Acrobat. To do so, click on the icon at left.