Put the gardens back in our Garden City!

***What do you think?
Go HERE to vote
"Do you prefer a trade and exhibition centre rather than an urban agricultural plan on the Garden City lands?"

This is very exciting, there has been debate, dicussion and disagreement among many groups on the fate of a parcel of land in Richmond's city center.
Currently the land is help in the ALR which stands for Agricultural Land Reserve. Basicly, as the name implies, that means the land is reserved for agricultural use.
In the past few years as Richmond grows to unbelievable proportions, many people and groups have requested the land be taken out of the ALR (it currently stands empty) and used for various developement ideas, including (but probably not limited to) a trade centre and and other 'public' buildings, and a portion for high density housing, blueberry farming, and recently a proposal from the Quilchena Golf and Country club (for what I don't know).
In the past week or so the Richmond Poverty Response Commitee put forth a proposal to use the land, for of all things, agricultural farming. They also want to locate Richmond's food bank, along with several other food and agriculture related buildings on the 55 hectares. Fancy that.
There has been much discussion on the concept of Urban Agriculture (I'll save most of it for another post) but for the community and environmental health it is a shot in the arm. The David Suzuki foundation estimates that most of our
food travels more then 2,400 km just to get to our stomachs. Currently most of our organic produce comes from California, I don't know why since with our climate there are very few items that can't be grown right here in our own backyards!
The David Suzuki foundation also has caculated that for food to feed a family of four, including packaging and distributing, can release up to 8 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year! Almost all of this is without any real need.
Of course many of the city's politicians are not pleased, they want the PRC to consider lands elsewhere, probably on the outskirts where those who need this most won't be able to access it.
This isn't the best image but the general idea is understandable, it would hopefully include:















Proposed Sustainable Food Systems Park • Community gardens • Community farms • Heritage orchard • Demo farm • Water reservoir • Local farmers market • Teaching kitchen • Restaurant • Food bank • Outdoor gathering place and much much more.
(This is a first proposal, as the project progresses changes are likely to be made)
Overall, I think this keeps in the theme of agrcultural land use, not to mention the fact that it provides healthy, locally grown, easily accesable, very much needed produce for the people of Richmond. Once the land is gone, that will be it, no-one will be willing to tear down whatever concrete monstrosoty they build in order to provide anything other then another concrete cash cow for the city.
I have read that some city staff want the PRC to consider other lands, I suggest that the CITY consider other lands and concede that this is by far the best proposal for this area and provides the most benefit for the residents of Richmond.

The official, public release of the proposal will be at 10:00am, Tuesday February 20th at the Richmond Museum at 7700 Minoru Gate.