and Colony Farm Preservation Group

J c/o Liz Clarke
) ° 1033 Stafford Ave.
a Coquitlam, B.C. V3I 257

no COUNCIL

Port Coquitlam City Council

2272 McAllister OCT 27 1986 -

Port Coquitlam, B.C.

Dear Mayor Traboulay and Council Members:

We were very pleased with a recent decision of the Agricultural
Land Commission affirming Colony Farm as "some of the province's
most productive farmland", and their refusal to allow non-
agricultural uses of the land, such as a golf course.

However, we are concerned that the provincial government and
local city councils still wish to see the land sold to a private
owner or owners. We fear such a sale will eventually lead to
ownership by developers who will try, in the future, to rezone
the property. Colony Farm lies adjacent to the Mayfair Industrial
Park and to residential developments. Due to its prime urban
location, under private ownership, Colony Farm would be fonever
vulnerable to alienation from the Land Reserve.

Under public ownership, however, Colony Farm could be leased to
farmers under the existing A.L.C. and Provincial Ministries of
Agriculture and Fisheries' Long Term Lease Program. This would
ensure that the land remains in the Land Reserve, while still
being used productively as farmland.

In addition, use of an existing program promoting an integrated
management of wildlife habitat could be set up to accomodate
another feature of Colony Farm - its diverse bird and wildlife
population, and importance as land adjacent to the dalmon-
spawning Coquitlam River.

The public would then have the best of all worlds: the use of
Colony Farm as farmland now; the assurance of its use as farmland
in the future; and the preservation of important habitat for

salmon stoeks and wildlife.

We urge Port Coquitlam City Council to lobby the provincial
government and the B.C. Buildings Corporation to halt the sale

of Colony Farm. Enclosed with this letter are petitions from

local citizens who wish to see Colony Farm remain in public
ownership. We trust that these signatures convey to you the extent
of public opposition to the proposed sale of the land, and the
desire of local citizens to preserve this last section of prime

2150 Maple Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6J 3T3
16 = (604) 736-SPEC