Farmland protection in British Columbia: an evaluation of the Agricultural Land Commission's application process and its impact on long-range agricultural land use planning

There is concern that agricultural land use planning in British Columbia (BC) has become too focused upon and driven by the Agricultural Land Commission's (ALC) application process. According to Richard Bullock, former Chair of the ALC, too much prominence has been given to the application process and not enough to long-range planning. Given the importance of Bullock's statement and the potentially significant implications, it is critical to further investigate Bullock's assertions. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to analyze Bullock's statement and assess whether the ALC is driven by the application process and the extent to which it supports or undermines long-range agricultural land use planning. Data were collected through a content analysis of ALC application archives, Agricultural Advisory Council (AAC) meeting minutes for the City of Kelowna, and key informant interviews with planning professionals. Results reveal that Bullock's statement is valid, but only to a limited extent because the application process does not hinder long-range planning for farmland protection in BC the current legislative framework hinders it. The results of this study expose how the effects of a few legislative details have had the double effect of increasing the prominence of applications and constraining what long-range planning that the ALC can do. --Leaf 2.