Industry would love to build on Bill McKinney’s long, straight rows of potatoes. They’d they’d love to build on Bob Wright’s zucchini patch and they’d love to build on Maria De Putter’s horse field.What’s standing in their way? The Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR).

The ALR was created through legislation in 1973 to protect valuable farmland, about five per cent of British Columbia’s land base.

Although ALR land in Metro Vancouver is, for the most part, Class 1 and 2 with the highest capacity for growing food, it’s seen as a land bank for development. Developers are continually coming up with ways to have land removed and they’re often successful.

In the last 20 years, in the South Slough area of Richmond, we’ve seen the most fertile farmland in the province removed for 1960s style sprawling one and two-story shopping malls, factories, warehouses and office buildings.

Now industry claims Metro Vancouver faces a serious shortage of vacant industrial land.

A forecast and analysis released by the National Association of Industrial and Office Parks (NAOIP) Vancouver chapter and a recent speech by Robin Silvester, CEO of Port Metro Vancouver, confirms the worst: within 11 years, Metro Vancouver will run out of industrial land.

“In our view, the (NAIOP) report identifies a critical need for additional industrial, jobs-producing lands in Metro Vancouver,” said Chris MacCauley, a NAIOP Vancouver board member and vice-president, Industrial Properties at CBRE Canada.

“We have been sounding the alarm on this very serious issue for over two years now,” said Silvester.

For Metro Vancouver, this means a loss of jobs and opportunities because large companies unable to find industrial land head for Calgary and Seattle, according to NAIOP.

Their solution is to remove more land from the ALR.

Given that agriculture is also an industry, is this necessary?

“There’s no question, we’re running out of undeveloped industrial land,” said Helmut Pastrick, Central 1 Credit Union chief economist. “But there are far better, more efficient options than using ALR Land.”

Drive or cycle around industrial parks such as Ironwood in the South Slough area, and you’ll see that about fifty per cent of the buildings are for sale or lease.

“This already developed industrial land could be used much more efficiently,” Pastrick said.

Michael Goldberg, retired dean of the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business, agrees.

“Half a dozen years ago, Vancouver feared downtown condo development would lead to a shortage of  office space,” said Goldberg.

“The City of Vancouver banned condos from the core in favour of office space and most importantly significantly raised allowable densities.”

The result was a major increase in supply.

“As industrial land prices continue to increase through diminishing supply and rising demand, at some point, we will have to move to multi-storey industrial buildings to offset the high land costs,” said Goldberg.

“Fortunately, most industrial zones already permit higher density so this transition should be far easier and smoother than has been the case for residential densification,” Goldberg said.

Space for industrial activities can be significantly increased through densification while leaving farmland for its highest and best use.

A quick look at what’s for lease and for sale in a small industrial area in Richmond.