Dear Editor:
Your Nov. 17 editorial, Green Acres, suggests the rationale of the provincial government is that "while the ALC (Agricultural Land Commission) is a good idea, maybe the market has something more lucrative in mind in the short term, say, a gas field or another sprawling suburb."
I, and most of your readers live in sprawling suburbs called North Vancouver and West Vancouver. Many would argue that these suburbs could be defined as "sprawling" due to the low density resulting from the high proportion of large lots and single-family dwellings. These suburbs have been around for more than one hundred years, which, in my opinion, is not short term.If it is the opinion of the North Shore News that demand for dwelling units should go unheeded on land that may have some agricultural use, that's fine. But, if so, please, if and when future editorials are printed lamenting about housing being unaffordable for many in Metro Vancouver (and especially the North Shore), make sure that the inability to use land that is frozen by the ALC for housing is mentioned as one of the reasons, as this freeze constrains supply thus increasing the land cost.
Jonathan Lazar
North Vancouver
Editor: Bowen Island has the only Agricultural Land Reserve on the North Shore.
