New law stalls farmer’s home plan
Richmond resident says family lost over $1 million after gutting farm dwelling
Jag Johal’s plan to build a home where he could live with his extended family on their Richmond farm has been put on hold indefinitely thanks to new provincial regulations.
“Now, pretty much, I’m left without a house,” he said.
Johal, whose family owns Johal Berry Farms, applied last spring to build a 10,500-square-foot house on his parents’ eight-acre blueberry farm. The plan was for Johal, his grandparents, parents, sister and his uncle’s family to live in the house.
Johal received an email from the City of Richmond on Feb. 14 notifying him that his building permit was ready to be picked up. It said that he owed almost $16,000 in outstanding fees and had to fulfil four requirements, including completing demolition of his old house, before issuance. Johal began gutting the house a day later.
He was shocked Feb. 26 to receive a second email from the city, this time with a notice that his building permit application had been denied because his application for a 10,500-sq.-ft house was larger than permitted under the Agricultural Land Commission Amendment Act.
Changes to the provincial act — including limiting the size of houses allowed on agricultural land to 500 square metres (5,382 sq. ft) or less — went into effect Feb. 22.
In December, the City of Richmond changed its bylaws to limit the maximum size of a house — including garage and residential accessory buildings — to 400 square metres, or 4,305 sq. ft. Previously, the city allowed homes up to 10,764 sq. ft on agricultural land.
“I just followed that law,” Johal said.
“I was grandfathered into that for the City of Richmond.”
Johal thought it would be the same case for the provincial regulations. The amended act allows someone who wanted to build a house larger than 500 sq. m., had received all of the required authorizations from their local government before Feb. 22 and substantially began construction of the home foundation before Nov. 5, 2019, to proceed with their project.
However, Johal was told by the city that he would have to submit a new building-permit application for a home no bigger than 400 sq. m. or apply to the city to have the property designated for non-farm use and, if endorsed, get approval from the Agricultural Land Commission.
“What’s the point of tearing down the house to build a smaller house than I originally have?” he asked.
Johal said his family has owned the property for about 15 years — they own multiple farms in Metro Vancouver — and lived there up until they moved to a rental property four or five months ago in preparation for construction. He estimated that his parents lost about $1 million in property value by gutting the house and he spent close to $150,000 on applications, permits and fees, planning and demolition.
“It’s almost destroying my family,” he said.
The City of Richmond didn’t respond to requests for an explanation.
Richmond-Queensborough MLA Jas Johal — who isn’t related to Jag Johal — said he’s heard about at least two other cases of farmers in his riding who have had similar issues with building permits, though he doesn’t believe the situation is unique to Richmond.
“My concern as an MLA is for my constituents who are caught in the middle of this stuff. A home is the biggest financial decision you’re going to make in your life, and this has added tremendous worry for these people,” Johal said. “They played by the rules and now they don’t know what the rules are.”