Recovery centre for men proposed for Langley Township forced to look elsewhere due to ALR ruling
Credit to Author: Gordon McIntyre| Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2019 23:29:40 +0000
David O’Sullivan can only sit back in frustration as red tape and blueberries confound the efforts of the Christian-based charitable group he chairs to expand its services into the Township of Langley.
The organization, Luke 15 House in Surrey, is a non-profit home and educational centre for men with addictions, and it had agreed to buy five acres of land and the dorm-like buildings on it in the township to house up to 50 men recovering from addiction. The existing home in Surrey can house up to 23, while cost and restricted space have forced it to look for a new location.
The Langley property is on an Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) parcel, which the Luke 15 House board was aware of when they made a $2.3-million offer for it 18 months ago.
“We were changing nothing, this building and property has been used as a community care facility since it was built in the early 1970s and we thought it would be no issue,” O’Sullivan said.
But a three-person Agriculture Land Commission (ALC) panel unanimously rejected Luke 15 House’s proposals in June, stating the use of buildings on the property for a residential recovery program “does not provide a benefit to agriculture” and that “continued use of the property for non-farm-use purposes reduces the agricultural opportunities on the property, which results in the reduction of the agricultural utility of the property.”
The rejection was made under long-standing ALC rules, a spokesman for the government — more than one ministry is involved — said.
“While we recognize and support the important work being done by organizations like Luke 15, land-use decisions within the Agricultural Land Reserve, like this one, are up to the Agriculture Land Commission,” he said. “The ALC is an administrative tribunal — arm’s length from government — and we do not interfere in that independent decision-making process.”
The panel told Luke 15 House that it should seek property outside of the ALR on parcels not designated for agricultural use.
Originally known as Linden Lodge, a private care facility for people with intellectual disabilities established in 1972, it was acquired by current owner Worldwide Evangelization for Christ in 1995 to train missionaries.
“It’s always been an extended health-care facility,” O’Sullivan said.
David O’Sullivan, chair of Luke 15 House in Surrey.
Luke 15 is part of a New Testament gospel that includes Jesus’s redemptive parables of the lost sheep and the prodigal son, and redemption is at the heart of Luke 15 House’s efforts, O’Sullivan said.
“Taking back the prodigal son, that’s exactly what these addicts are,” he said.
Luke 15 House takes in men who have just been released from prison, usually as part of their parole, and houses them for six to 12 months. But there is no space for recreation or much vocational training. The Langley Township site would have been ideal for that.
As part of its bid, Luke 15 House had a detailed business plan to grow boxwood plants and, by Year 3, sell $40,000-worth of them a year. House inhabitants would be trained in horticulture and greenhouse use.
“Addicts have no sense of delayed reward, it’s all about immediate gratification,” O’Sullivan said. “But if you can give them a life skill, teach them to grow something and watch it go from nothing to something substantial … That’s why it is so good to put addicts into a farming community, they can learn to see that delayed reward come to fruition.”
O’Sullivan estimates he personally has put in about 10 hours a week over the past 18 months and money out of his own pocket, and other volunteers have also put in unknown hours, on the Langley proposal. The Luke 15 House has withdrawn its offer to purchase the property after putting down a $50,000 non-refundable deposit.
He is unsure what could be grown on the land. Currently, there are a handful of apple, pear and cherry trees, 14 or 15 in total, and a blueberry farm next door.
“What would four or so acres of blueberries yield in a year? Twelve tons? Is that more important than getting 40 or 50 men a year off drugs?” he said.
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