Advocacy and District Governance

Our Story

FUAL was incorporated  as a BC society on April 01, 2012, with the following statement of purpose :

•  To promote food production by families and individuals within the community.

•  To build local knowledge relating to food production.

•  To foster community spirit through organizing community events and creating opportunities for interaction.

•  To provide similar or related services as recommended by the membership and executive.

Our previous mayor and council took steps to enforce our outdated zoning bylaw 60, which forbids growing and selling food on residentially zoned property.

Council’s action created an upspring of support for urban farming which resulted in a 42% voter turnout in the 2011 municipal election and the defeat of the sitting mayor and two councillors.

Since that time, there has been little or no progress within our local government, due to domination of Council by four councillors, three from the former Council and one who was newly-elected.

FUAL's delegation to Lantzville Council on
February 27th, 2012

"Thank you for the opportunity to present mayor and

council with an brief overview of FUAL, its history,

vision, and goals.

History:

We are a community group comprised of Lantzville

residents. We are unstructured and thus have a free

flow of ideas during our meetings. FUAL is guided by

a steering group which meets regularly to focus on

educational events, fundraising, and suggest ways in

which our group can better serve the community. We

have a large contact list of supporters within Lantzville.

Our goal is to promote a community which promotes

Urban Farming in the best interests of the whole

community. We recognize that enhancing and

improving access to locally grown food can only make

Lantzville a stronger healthier community.

We became active when the Council’s letter to

Compassion Farm brought the Urban Agriculture issue

to our attention. The owners of Compassion farm are

not members of FUAL and do not attend our meetings.

FUAL has been involved in the dialogue through our

critique of the process of creating bylaw

60.23 as well as hosting educational seminars with

credible experts on issues of soil replenishment, ALR,

and planning.

Issues:

FUALrecognizes the desire of council to see this issue

dealt with in a satisfactory manner. We recognize the

work put into this issue by councillors past and present

and the struggles with competing interests and values.

FUAL has been disappointed in the process of

creating this amendment bylaw and we believe the

community has registered displeasure with the

process. We feel the bylaw is being pursued for

expediency in ending a dispute rather than for

improving bylaw 60.

FUALprefers alternatives to bylaw 60.23 due, primarily,

to the following concerns:

• No evidence has been presented about an

appropriate balance between residential and SPINfarmed

land for Lantzville.

• It appears that this set of regulations was prepared

by elected representatives rather than professional

staff and advisors. We think this does not conform

with common municipal practice and leads to flawed

decisions.

• Both Council and the urban gardening committee

failed to consider how to incorporate the new SPIN

farming into an integrated approach to planning for

the future of Lantzville.

Suggestions:

We propose that Council investigate alternative models

rather than the piecemeal approach of bylaw 60.23:

1. Rescind bylaw 60.23

2. Enunciate a policy for our OCP similar to Lake

Cowichan (Appendix A)

3 .Improve the nuisance bylaw to preserve the

peaceful enjoyment of residential property owners

by applying the same nuisance guidelines to all

sources of aggravation, such as noise, air pollution,

and smells, including chainsaws, leaf blowers,

amplified audio devices, rowdy social gatherings,

particulate matter from inefficient wood stoves and

other airborne nuisance.

4. Reiterate within municipal regulations provincial

guidelines from various ministries ensuring

standards for farming practices to protect

community water safety.

Closing:

FUAL recognizes that debate over this issue has been

divisive and frequently uninformed. FUAL wants to be

supportive of Council. We have a number of members

with a wide range of education and experience in

agriculture and gardening. FUAL is willing to support

Council and the community with ongoing education

and research. FUAL is willing to support Council and

collaboratively generate and conduct a survey of the

community to inform and listen to what our community

wants. We are flexible and are prepared to put in

volunteer time to help organize effective and

participatory community consultation.

Thank you for the opportunity to address you, and we

look forward to the working with Council for the

betterment of our community.

Respectfully submitted,

Jamie Wallace,

Co-coordinator