Can I complain about a farm next door in BC?

Question

Accepted Answer

Yes, to the BC Farm Industry Review Board, but a farm following normal farm practice on ALR or farm-zoned land can't be sued or stopped in court over its odour, noise or dust. The Act protects how farms normally work, at their busiest seasons too, not how quiet the land looked on a viewing day (our reading). Look up the address or PID on PlaceDossier to see the record for that lot. What the Act protects: If a farm operation is part of a farm business, follows normal farm practice, is on land in the ALR or where the Local Government Act allows farm use, and keeps to the Public Health Act, the Integrated Pest Management Act, the Environmental Management Act and any land use regulation, the farmer isn't liable in nuisance for any odour, noise, dust or other disturbance from it, and can't be stopped by an injunction or other court order (s. 2 (1), (2)). Farm operations include keeping animals, clearing and draining land, running machinery, and applying fertilizer, manure and pesticides, by ground and aerial spraying too (s. 1). Normal farm practice: A practice carried on the way similar farm businesses under similar circumstances do it, by proper and accepted customs and standards, new technology used with proper advanced management included (s. 1). Breeding pets, running a kennel, most exotic animals and forest practices other than grazing and hay cutting aren't farm operations (s. 1), so the Act doesn't shield them. Local noise and nuisance bylaws: On ALR land, a farm meeting the Act's other conditions doesn't break a council's or regional district's noise, nuisance, animal, firearms or fireworks bylaw only by carrying on that farm operation, and can't be stopped in court by the local government for it (s. 2 (3)). Complaining: Anyone aggrieved by a farm's odour, noise, dust or other disturbance may apply in writing to the BC Farm Industry Review Board, naming the farmer and where the farm is, with the $100 fee (s. 3; BC Farm Industry Review Board Regulation s. 1). The board's chair may first try to settle it, asking people who know the practice (s. 4); failing that, a panel holds a hearing and either dismisses the complaint, where the practice is normal, or orders the farmer to stop it or change it to normal practice (ss. 5, 6 (1)). A trivial or bad-faith complaint, or one from someone without enough personal interest, can be refused (s. 6 (2)), and either side may appeal to the Supreme Court within 60 days, on law or jurisdiction only (s. 8). The Province suggests starting informally: the local government, the Ministry's regional agri-teams or the board itself. Farm bylaws and intensive farming: Where the Province declares it by regulation, a local government may make bylaws on how farms operate, where they store materials and waste, and which farm operations are prohibited, with the agriculture minister's approval, and its zoning may not restrict farming in a farming area without that approval (Local Government Act ss. 481, 552, 553). Until a zoning bylaw is approved that way, confining poultry, livestock or fur-bearing animals, or growing mushrooms, commercially is a permitted use of agricultural land despite the zoning, bar the small lots titled before 1973 that the Agricultural Land Commission Act sets apart (s. 555). Buffers along the edge: Where new lots go in beside farmland, an approving officer may refuse a subdivision whose development would unreasonably interfere with farming next door for want of buffering or separation, or whose roads would needlessly open access into the ALR (Land Title Act s. 86 (1) (c) (x), (xi)). Councils can also set development permit areas to protect farming, and the Ministry's Guide to Edge Planning gives buffer options for them (the Ministry's edge planning page). A lot on the edge can carry a planted buffer or a covenant from that subdivision; the title shows a covenant (our reading). What it means for a buyer: Living beside farmland means living with farming as it's normally done. A report says whether any of the lot is in the ALR, draws the reserve around it on the plan, and says who owns the land along each side of the lot line; the neighbours can say what they farm and when.

Can I complain about a farm next door in BC?

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