A  new mega home on farmland in Richmond has driven the 26.6 acre lot it sits on from an assessed value of just $88,000 to $8.3 million.

Do you think these large homes are having an impact on prices in Richmond's Agricultural Land Reserve? Are you concerned?

This is just one of many ALR lots that has dramatically jumped in value over the past year, and one by one each of these farms is being taken out of production and will likely never by farmed again.

A home currently being built on No. 2 Rd will be among the top 10 most expensive homes in Richmond upon completion. BC Assessment delisted this property from farm class.

City council has been grappled with the issue of house sizes on ALR for over a year now. Early last year, a couple of Richmond counsillers put forward a motion to temporarily limit ALR houses to 7,500 square, but was rejected by council. Soon after the same councillors implemented a bylaw for 10,764 square feet homes on lots greater than 2 acres. It is now going back for public consultation with new options to be presented to the public.

In the meantime we are seeing a bigger rush than ever to build 11,000 plus homes on ALR land, before this bylaw can be enforced.

And to make matters worse, ALR land in Metro Vancouver is not subject to the 15% foreign buyers tax. Do you think that might also be an incentive to take advantage of Richmond's wishy washy stance on its ALR land? Your thoughts?