Georgia Straight's 1996 coverage of John Les and the Ryder Lake proposal

On this blog on the weekend, I mentioned that I had written articles in the mid 1990s about the Ryder Lake controversy while John Les was the mayor of Chilliwack.

Les stepped down last Friday as B.C.'s solicitor general. Here are the articles that the Georgia Straight published, which concerned efforts to have land at Ryder Lake removed from the Agricultural Land Reserve. I highlighted Les's most controversial comments in bold-faced type below.

April 18-25, 1996
By Charlie Smith

A Chilliwack citizens’ group has accused Agricultural Land Commission chair Kirk Miller of being “biased” in favour of a massive development planned on land within the Agricultural Land Reserve. On March 22, Gloria Beshara, cochair of the Ryder Lake Representation Committee, wrote to Premier Glen Clark’s office, alleging that Miller “has been operating outside the ALC’s mandate, as he actively participates in strategy sessions to promote the removal of over 2,000 acres of high to good quality agricultural land”. Miller has advised District of Chilliwack officials on their plan to develop a “sustainable community” of 40,000 new residents at Ryder Lake; 2,162 acres in the proposed development, about one quarter of its total area, are within the ALR.

Miller told the Georgia Straight that commission officials have operated within their mandate by working with Chilliwack officials on the Ryder Lake plan. “It’s a longstanding commitment of the commission to look at this area for urban growth,” he said. “I’m just articulating to the public and to various people the decisions made by previous commissions.”

If approved, the project would include three urban villages, a town centre, and a resort development to be built over the next 25 years. The plan goes to a public hearing on April 22 in Chilliwack.

Beshara told the Straight that it’s “totally unnecessary” to urbanize agricultural land at Ryder Lake, pointing to a 1990 ALC report that identified more than 40,000 hectares of non-ALR urban and rural land already available for development in Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley. Representatives of the District of Chilliwack have said the Ryder Lake development is necessary to accommodate rapid population increases forecast for the Chilliwack area.

Beshara has obtained a number of memos and letters from the Agricultural Land Commission outlining Miller’s views on the Ryder Lake plans. One such memo, written by former ALC planning officer Mark Hornell on November 1, 1993, described a meeting he had with Miller, ALC commissioner Julie Glover and Alan Artibise, a UBC planning professor and the District of Chilliwack’s senior consultant on the Ryder Lake development plan.

Hornell’s memo noted that Artibise was starting to meet with major developers such as André Molnar to see if they would be interested in developing the land. “Alan could prepare a background report,” Hornell wrote. “Kirk would try and get our Minister to understand that the process has implications for agriculture and the ALR. The idea would be to get [Agriculture Minister Dave] Zirnhelt to send a letter to the other ministers noting that the process is underway and is an approach that is worth endorsing. Kirk suggested that we stress the economic development aspects of the proposal.”

Hornell wrote that the objective of the letter to Zirnhelt was “to get the Minister to get other ministries and staff to approach the concept/process in a positive light and not obstruct it in an unwarranted way”. (Officials in the Forest, Highways, and Environment ministries have since raised objections to certain aspects of the plan, according to other memos obtained by Bashera under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.) Miller followed through with a January 1994 letter to Zirnhelt, noting that as far back as 1976, the ALC had “agreed to release lower capability land from the ALR in the Promontory/Ryder Lake upland area”.

In the letter to Zirnhelt, Miller wrote: “To avoid massive transportation impacts on the valley bottom, and to meet Chilliwack’s long term urban growth needs, this area must be developed as a complete community, one where people have the opportunity to live, work and play.”

Beshara, however, produced ALC maps that suggest a significant portion of the area slated for development at Ryder Lake is just as good for growing crops—with the appropriate improvements—as land in the valley below, and she has demanded that the B.C. government conduct a full environmental assessment. In her letter to the premier’s office, Beshara claimed: “Mr. Miller...has actively and voluntarily worked toward an unnecessary removal and destruction of 2,162 acres of the ALR.”

Artibise told the Straight that the Ryder Lake plan is a “critical demonstration project” for the province. “By going into upland areas, from time to time one might need to take existing agricultural land out of the reserve,” Artibise added. He said the commission has required higher than average densities, no negative impact on the valley floor, and a lower ratio of roads than in traditional subdivisions.

On May 17, 1994, Artibise faxed a note to Miller asking him to write or phone the Real Estate Foundation of B.C. to support the Ryder Lake planning exercise. “We believe that with your support, the Foundation will be willing to provide some funding,” Artibise wrote.

Two months later, Miller wrote a letter to foundation executive director Tim Pringle, saying: “ Chilliwack is pioneering the development of complete communities in upland areas of B.C.” The foundation subsequently approved a $25,000 grant to help finance the district’s Ryder Lake planning process.

Beshara told the Straight that the ALC chairman has no business writing a letter to the Real Estate Foundation of B.C. to facilitate a planning exercise that has the objective of removing land from the ALR. Miller’s 1994 letter to Zirnhelt claimed there was no room to accommodate Chilliwack’s high housing demand on the valley floor without jeopardizing productive agricultural land, and it praised the district’s “innovative solutions” to deal with population growth.

Ironically, back in 1990 Miller wrote a critical letter to Chilliwack Mayor John Les for not including the ALC in discussions about the district’s official community plan. The plan recommended nonagricultural uses for more than 1,000 acres in the ALR. By 1993, however, Miller was suggesting that Les “endorse our letter to the Minister”, according to Hornell’s memo, which also said: “The leadership role of the municipality needs to be underlined.” Miller said the District of Chilliwack began working much more closely with the commission after the last provincial election, perhaps realizing it could no longer have valley farmland removed from the ALR.

Beshara said that Les, president of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and a former real-estate agent, has been advertising on the Internet to persuade people from as far away as the Far East to invest at Ryder Lake. Les has also been quick to respond to criticism here in B.C.

Last year, the Vancouver Sun printed a front-page story on the plans for Ryder Lake, quoting GVRD urban planner Hugh Kellas as saying there’s no guarantee that major manufacturers can be persuaded to move to Ryder Lake. After the article appeared, Les fired off a letter to GVRD chairperson Greg Halsey-Brandt—which Beshara obtained through a freedom-of-information request—saying: “If employees of the District of Chilliwack commented in the public way your staff have about the activities of another level of government, they would be terminated.” (Bold-type face added.)

The Sun article also included a photograph of Ministry of Environment habitat protection officer Sylvia Letay—a member of a technical advisory committee on the Ryder Lake development plan—standing in an enormous clearcut in a nearby development. Letay told the Sun that the other development could not be “described as sustainable”.

Les wrote to then–environment minister Elizabeth Cull, slamming Letay’s “public ”˜political’ statements”. Les added: “If Ms. Letay were an employee of the District of Chilliwack, and commented in the public way she has about the activities of another level of government, she would be terminated.” (Bold-type face added.)

In a letter to Les, Cull replied that at a technical advisory committee meeting on April 27 last year, ministry officials “further expressed our concerns that the Ryder Lake project was moving away from the original idea of a sustainable community. This concern was repeated by several other agencies, including the regional district, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), and the Ministry of Transportation and Highways.”

Les wrote back on June 23, saying he was “flabbergasted” by that allegation: “I could comment to that in one word—but it would be impolite and ungentlemanly.” Just two weeks earlier, Ministry of Transportation and Highways official Derek Parkes had written a memo claiming that the Ryder Lake planning documents had changed significantly from mid-1994 and “now begin to depict a fairly traditional bedroom suburb”.

Beshara claimed that Artibise had stated in a workshop last year that Ryder Lake would need a population of 80,000 to achieve sustainability, and she suggested that moving 40,000 people in the area would merely create another automobile-dependent suburb. Artibise told the Straight that sustainability could be achieved with a population of 40,000. “If you have a community of 40,000 people, you need 20,000 jobs,” he said. “Of those 20,000, half are...sort of created by natural growth. So our challenge is to create 10,000 jobs—which is a significant challenge.”


May 2-9, 1996
Ryder Lakers Misled
By Charlie Smith

The District of Chilliwack’s finance director, Phil Reeves, has admitted to the Straight that he misled a resident of the Ryder Lake area when he claimed that the Real Estate Foundation of B.C. had handed over money to help facilitate a massive development proposed on land within the Agricultural Land Reserve. The foundation’s executive director, Tim Pringle, told the Straight that a $25,000 grant was approved in 1994 if the district could demonstrate sufficient “public education” aspects to the plan, which would result in the removal of 2,162 acres from the ALR at Ryder Lake. Pringle said he hasn’t heard back from Chilliwack officials, and therefore, the money hasn’t been forwarded to the district.

However, on December 12, 1995, Reeves wrote to Ryder Lake resident Lee Larkin, saying: “To date we have received $25,000 from the Real Estate Foundation of B.C., $10,000 from the Government of Canada (Affordability and Choice Today Program), and we have applied for $100,000 from the planning section of the B.C. Ministry of Municipal Affairs.”

The letter pointed out that almost $520,000 had been spent on the Ryder Lake planning exercise from 1993 to 1995, but conveyed the impression that district taxpayers wouldn’t end up paying the full cost. On April 30, Reeves told the Straight that, in fact, the foundation hasn’t provided the money because the district hasn’t met the necessary conditions, which included providing certain documentation. As a result, virtually the entire planning exercise is being paid out of municipal general revenue.

“They haven’t been very honest with what is actually going on,” Larkin told the Straight.

As an example, she said that Chilliwack Councillor Clint Hames told a recent public hearing that a memorandum of understanding had been negotiated between the district and senior levels of government. Ministry official Brian Clark told the Straight on April 30 that the memorandum of understanding—which would describe how phases of the development would be reviewed—has not been signed.

On May 6, Chilliwack council will vote on the proposal to create three villages and a possible resort over 25 years at Ryder Lake to accommodate 40,000 new residents. Paul George, cofounder of the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, has written to Agriculture Minister Dave Zirnhelt demanding an investigation into the role of Agricultural Land Commission chairman Kirk Miller in facilitating the development. Miller, who has worked with district officials on the Ryder Lake plan, defended his actions in an interview with the Straight two weeks ago. George claimed in his letter to Zirnhelt that Miller has contravened the ALC mandate “to preserve agricultural land and encourage the establishment of farms”.


May 9-16, 1996
Huge project deferred
By Charlie Smith

A new city with 40,000 residents will not be built on agricultural land at Ryder Lake near Chilliwack—at least not for now.

On May 6, Chilliwack municipal politicians stunned opponents of the proposed project by voting to defer the issue, perhaps for up to three years.

More than 1,000 people showed up at three earlier public meetings to discuss the plan, which called for three villages and possibly a resort to be built over a 25-year period.

“My analogy is that we have put a stake through the vampire’s heart but we have yet to bury it at the crossroad,” Ryder Lake resident Malcolm James told the Straight.

James said five councillors and Mayor John Les each offered a reason at the meeting why they felt the controversial proposal should not be approved.

The politicians suggested that any development conform to the new Growth Strategy Act; that the project not proceed until a full review of the official community plan; that the plan conform to the Fraser Valley Regional District’s growth strategy, which won’t be completed for three years; and that the plan also conform to the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s Livable Region Plan.

James also wants a full environmental assessment before any development is approved.

The councillors’ decision marked an abrupt reversal after three years of eager support for the proposal.

Agricultural Land Commission chairman Kirk Miller had also supported the concept of developing housing in the uplands area, even though 2,162 acres are in the Agricultural Land Reserve.

Miller had suggested in letters to the Real Estate Foundation of B.C. and to Agriculture Minister Dave Zirnhelt that building a “sustainable” community in the uplands area would ease pressure to develop housing on agricultural land on the valley floor.

Opponents gave the Straight copies of B.C. government documents that suggested the project was not “sustainable” and could turn out to be another automobile-dependent suburb.

James credited the Western Canada Wilderness Committee for pressuring the B.C. government not to allow the development on farmland, suggesting that this might also have influenced Chilliwack politicians.

But members of the Ryder Lake Representation Committee, who called for ecologically sustainable employment projects and preservation of farmland, are not resting on their laurels.

James said that his wife, committee chairwoman Gloria Beshara, is seriously considering running for municipal office and might challenge Les in the November contest for mayor.