People weigh in on Five Acres Farm affordable housing proposals

Ben Sundby places a sticker on the option with no housing development on the site of the Five Acre Farm at an open house on Oct. 25, 2023. Photo: Mick Sweetman / CHLY 101.7FM

On Wednesday Oct. 25, the City of Nanaimo held an open house about the future of the Five Acres Farm at 933 Park Ave. The property was purchased by the city in 2019 to preserve the farm’s growing areas and wetland, as well as build affordable housing on the section where an old farmhouse and a handful of heritage apple trees now stand. 

Participants were given a sticker to post on one of four options showing where affordable housing could be built. Options ranged from housing on one to two acres, with a fifth option that didn’t build any housing on the property. An overwhelming number of participants posted their stickers on the fifth housing-free option. 

Nanaimo city councilor Paul Manly said that he wanted to make sure people were able to voice their opinion on all options for the property, which is why he moved an amendment at the June 19 council meeting to include the option without a housing development. 

“I knew that that was going to be an option that people wanted to see. So that's why I put it on the table,” he said. “I think that when we were discussing it around the council table, one of the things that the mayor said was that we should have as many options as possible for people to look at. I agreed with him and put that one on the table.”

One of the participants at the open house was Tony Kosh, a local property owner who has lived “kitty corner” to the farm for the past 15 years and is opposed to any development on it. 

“I’m opposed to all the housing,” he said. “I think it should just be a park. It should have something for the elderly people or just for the enjoyment of land, for people to walk around.”

Jasmine Tomczyk is a student at Vancouver Island University who worked for Nanaimo Foodshare last summer. She is opposed to development of housing on the property, and thinks that the city should use other land to build affordable housing.

“As somebody who lives below the poverty line and as a renter, I completely empathize with people who are struggling to find housing, particularly affordable housing during this time,” she said. “However, there are other plots of land that are not as agriculturally valuable as this one that would be fantastic for development.”

Casey Mitchell, is a board member with Foodshare, which currently leases the farm from the city to produce food for their Good Food Box program. She supports the development of  affordable housing on one acre of the property.

“It won't impact the area that is under cultivation and the access to the wetlands and park area,” she said. “Affordable housing is not going to impact it and hopefully people living there will come out and learn some things about gardening as well.”

City councillors Manley, Sheryl Armstrong, Hilary Eastmure, and Erin Hemmens attended the event talking with participants.

Eastmure said that as the only historic five-acre farm still growing food in the city council needs to balance that with the need for more affordable housing.

“We need to think about what's best for the legacy of this property,” she said. “It's very unique in that it hasn't been developed yet. It's still a prime growing space and if you were to put housing on a chunk of that it would take away the future potential of that site to produce food.”

While Councillor Armstrong  hasn’t settled on which proposal she’s in favour of, there is one she doesn’t support. 

“One's eliminated for me, and that's the great big one, the two acre parcel,” she said. “I can say that I don't like that plan.  I think there's been a lot of growth in Harewood, there's been a lot of growth in the city. I think we have to regulate it to a degree. I think the smaller plan on the one acre parcel to me is more palatable.”

An online survey is available for people to provide their feedback until November 3 at www.getinvolvednanaimo.ca

 
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.