Small- to mid-size operators are clamouring for additional industrial space, as the US dollar strengthens against the loonie. However, the provincial bypassed another opportunity to re-evaluate the parameters governing the Agricultural Land Commission (ALR). That’s resulting in rising land costs and supply concerns, according to industry watchers. “Balance can be found between the needs of agriculture (locally and Canada-wide) and the needs of industrial,” CBRE VP Chris MacCauley says. “We need to look at proper location (close to infrastructure and highways) and land size requirements and work with all levels of government to make it happen,” he says.
Here's Boundary Bay, an industrial warehouse project in Delta that just opened. (Good, for a second we thought it was the world's most poorly designed hockey rink.) “Nobody wants to talk about ALR and speak the truth for fears of backlash and the optics of changes to perceived sacred lands,” Chris says. However B.C. is almost out of lands that are suitable for current market drivers including the Port, LNG, e-commerce, logistics, and agriculture. “B.C. will have no choice in the next decade but to look at rezoning specific lands located within the ALR,” he says.
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