Mega mall development slated for Delta farmland

DELTA - Two mails planned for Tsawwassen First Nation (TFN) land south of Delta are compounding discontent over the loss of farm}and in the community.

"I hate to see our remaining farmland disappear," Vicki Huntington, independent MLA for Delta South says. "Placing a suburban megamall on land that was first expropriated from pioneer farmers, and then removed from the ALR, is the antithesis of everything I believe in. I wish TFN luck with the venture, but am terribly disappointed in their decision to move forward in this manner."

Delta farmer and civic councillor Ian Paton doesn't begrudge the Tsawwassen their development plans, but he contends the loss of farmland and wildlife habitat will be greater than any gain in jobs. With more than 1,000 acres of Delta farmland lost to highways, railways and now a mix of real estate development in recent years, Paton wonders if the word "Tsawwassen" will mean anything.

"The aboriginal term for Tsawwassen is, 'land facing the sea,'" he told Vancouver talk show radio host Bill Good in an interview last month. "By the time they're finished there, nobody's going to be getting a chance to look at the sea from Highway 17 because you'll be looking at the side of big-box stores and container storage."

Tsawwassen First Nation is proceeding with the development on land acquired under the terms of a treaty settlement reached with the province in December 2006. The land up for development includes 512 acres formerly in the Agricultural Land Reserve. The province sidestepped the usual exclusion process to make the prime farmland available for the treaty settlement.

Planning for development began well before the treaty took effect in April 2009, however. Country Life in B.C. reported in November 2007 that the Tsawwassen had started drafting a land use plan.

Tsawwassen Chief Kim Baird told Country Life in B.C. at the time that agriculture and port related opportunities were potential activities on the close to 1,800 acres the Tsawwassen now control, but industrial, retail and residential projects are first out of the gate.

Servicing for the initial 100 acres of a 300-acre port-oriented warehouse development received stimulus funding from the federal government. Ivanhoe Cambridge, which owns the Metrotown shopping complex in Burnaby, and the Property Development Group of Vancouver are working with the Tsawwassen on the two malls. Together, the malls will offer 1.75 million square feet of shopping space - only slightly smaller than the Metrotown complex, which boasts 1.79 million square feet.

Tsawwassen First Nation expects the two new malls to attract shoppers from the Southern Interior as well as travellers to and from the Tsawwassen ferry terminal, and,provide a local alternative to the outlet stores along the I-5 in Washington state.

Approvals from the province and Metro Vancouver for associated infrastructure are pending, but the malls could open by 2015.

From the perspective of Tsawwassen First Nation - now a self-governing entity alongside other municipalities within Metro Vancouver - what happens on their territory is their business - not unlike any other municipality in Metro Vancouver.

The difference is that they received a blank slate, which means the scale and density of the development will have a greater impact than a more organic pace of development. Delta mayor Lois Jackson, a long-time defender of soil-based agriculture and former chair of Metro Vancouver, says the situation is unprecedented in the Lower Mainland.

"They have a clean sheet," she said. "There's not too many other circumstances that we can see where that would be possible in the Lower Mainland municipalities because we don't have that kind of land left anywhere."

On the positive side, future changes to the Tsawwassen's land use plan will be subject to greater scrutiny from Metro Vancouver planners. While the initial plan was accepted as being in conformity with the regional growth strategy and its provisions for green space preservation, changes to the document will now follow the same process as any other municipality must follow.

It will also have to apply to the Agricultural Land Commission if it wishes to remove parcels from the Agricultural Land Reserve.