Agricultural Land Commission 2002/03 Annual Service Plan Report

Performance Reporting — Continued

Goal 2: Protect the Land Base

Objectives:

2.1 Ensure that lands suitable for agriculture are retained within the ALR.

2.2 Ensure that non-farm land use and subdivision within the ALR do not significantly impact on the suitability of lands for agriculture or existing agricultural operations.

2.3 Work with local governments, First Nations and other agencies to ensure that the ALR is appropriately reflected in their land use plans, policies and agreements.

Strategies
• Review and decide applications for inclusion, exclusion, non-farm use and subdivision under the Agricultural Land Reserve Act (now the Agricultural Land Commission Act) using the best available information, including site visits and meetings with applicants where possible. • To reduce the amount of suitable agricultural land excluded from the ALR or alienated by incompatible development. • Review the agricultural suitability of lands within the ALR as needed in response to improved information, planning reviews and land use trends • Improve agriculture and the suitability of lands for agriculture by negotiating, where appropriate, compensating benefits for agriculture if lands are removed from the ALR or converted to a non-farm use or subdivided. • Monitor the impact of Commission decisions, policies and uses permitted under the Act and regulations on agriculture and the suitability of lands for agriculture. • Establish guidelines for Official Community Plans that address the provincial interest in agricultural land preservation and criteria for auditing plans, as part of a modified results-based approach to planning for the ALR and as a basis for delegation. • Participate in treaty settlement negotiations that involve the selection by First Nations of lands designated ALR.
Performance Measure	2002/03 Target	2002/03 Actual	Explanation of Variance
Number of site visits increased (Objectives 1.4, 2.1)	80% of applications decided after site visit	74% of applications decided after site visit	• Overall increase in number of applications • Site visits were not necessary in some cases
Exclusions of suitable ALR compensated by a 'net benefit' to agriculture or by satisfying a community need through planning (Objective 2.2)	100% of exclusion applications of suitable land decided with 'net benefit' or for a community need	'Net benefit' decision reason not tracked	Revised performance measure underway for 2003/04
Amount of land removed from the ALR (other than for poor suitability or community need) minimized (Objective 2.2)	Amount of ALR land excluded minimized	• 1,922 ha. excluded compared to 1364 ha. in 2001/02 • 973 ha. included for net reduction of 949 ha.	• Overall increase in number of applications • Land excluded less than 1% (0.4) of Reserve area • Revised performance measure underway for 2003/04
Consistency between community plans and ALR guidelines (Objective 2.3)	80% of community plans are consistent with provincial ALR guidelines	96% (25 of 26) of community plans reviewed deemed consistent

Accomplishments During the Year

Commission distributed 9 bulletins to 133 local governments on legislative, regulatory and procedural changes.
465 new applications decided and 133 applications reconsidered by the Commission, a slight increase over 2001/02 (449 new applications decided).
393 site visits made to decide 531 applications.
Of the 1,922 ha. of land excluded from the ALR, 1,102 ha. were excluded in the Anarchist Mountain area in the South Okanagan because of poor capability and suitability for agriculture.
Commission reviewed and commented on 26 local government community plans and 10 zoning bylaws.