CAN: Developer Plans To Keep Community From Going To Pot

[Buzzby]

Developer Plans To Keep Community From Going To Pot
Buyers in Chilliwack, B.C., would agree to forfeit homes if Marijuana grow-op found
Mark Hume | Globe & Mail | 11/24/2004

VANCOUVER -- When Bill Coughlin returned to the real-estate business after a brief two-year retirement, he was shocked by the encounters he had with former clients.

As he travelled around the Fraser Valley, where he had been developing subdivisions and selling homes for 22 years, people stopped him to tell horror stories about the drug problem gripping Chilliwack.

"Bill, you sold me a dream home and right beside me I have a grow-op, three doors down I have another one, on the other side I have another one," he said, recounting a typical tale of woe. (BuzzNote: This sounds like heaven to me!) "My neighbourhood is destroyed. There's tinfoil on the windows of houses on my street. Nobody cuts their lawns. You never get to see the people. The block parties have stopped. . . . It's like we're hostages. You sold me this home. I'm retired. This is like my dream, but I want to move again."

(BuzzNote: I wonder if he'd be willing to sell cheap? If it weren't illegal to grow cannabis, it would be grown in industrial/agricultural facilities. I agree, though, that people should keep up their houses. My city is on my case when I've got a little peeling paint!)

His voice building with emotion, Mr. Coughlin says he hated the feeling of looking into the eyes of his clients and telling them the truth: "There's nowhere I can move you or protect you against this happening a second time."

That was then. This week Mr. Coughlin has a new answer. He has proposed building the first gated community in Canada that will require buyers to forfeit their homes if the buildings are ever used for Marijuana cultivation.

(BuzzNote: In the US, you'd forfeit your home to the government. Without charges. Without a trial.)

The answer may seem radical to some, Mr. Coughlin says, but they don't know what's happening in Chilliwack and other Fraser Valley communities.

Chilliwack, 100 kilometres east of Vancouver and surrounded by farm land, is one of British Columbia's fastest-growing communities. Located in a conservative region known as the Bible Belt, it is popular because for $300,000 to $400,000 you can get a large new home, with a spectacular view of the Coast Range, within commuting distance of Vancouver.

But behind the drawn curtains of the seemingly ideal community is an ugly truth. Chilliwack now has the second highest concentration of Marijuana-growing operations in B.C., which accounts for about half the drug cultivation incidents reported by Canadian police. Last year the community of 70,000 people had more than 200 known grow-ops, a fourfold increase from the late 1990s.

Police in B.C. are making a concerted effort to stamp out grow-ops but haven't been able to keep up.

(BuzzNote: What surprises me is that with all these "known" grow-ops they haven't been busted. Well-to-do people usually get better police services than that.)

Many of the grow-ops in Chilliwack are located in the burgeoning, upscale neighbourhoods where the detached homes have large yards and big, drive-in garages that provide privacy. Mr. Coughlin said the anonymity has allowed grow-ops to spread like a cancer that has destroyed the sense of community.

His plan is to regain that feeling of neighbourliness with a strict set of covenants applying to detached homes within a new development now taking shape.

"You have to say I am willing to sign an option agreement that says if I have a grow-op, that I will lose my home within 30 days," he said.

The covenant, which may not be legally enforceable, is only a proposal at this stage. Mr. Coughlin plans to put it to the public at an open house in Promontory Park on Saturday. But, he says, he thinks people in Chilliwack will go for it.

"Since I started talking about this I haven't had one negative comment," Mr. Coughlin said.

"If I have enough people sign up, and right now I think I will, then we have a whole new concept for housing. Quite frankly I see this in every community.

"This really is a serious issue for anybody who has a home and it's been devastated with a grow-op right beside you. . . . I mean the public here is quite honestly traumatized. . . . entire neighbourhoods are in fear."

Neal, who lives in one of Chilliwack's more exclusive neighbourhoods, said the community changed dramatically about two years ago when a wave of drug growers moved in.

Asking that his last name not be used, he said there is one active grow-op on the street, and an empty home that is up for sale was a grow-op. That house, he said, is one of the most beautiful in the neighbourhood, with an elaborate marble entrance.

"You are always worried that there is going to be some kind of conflict," Neal said. "It makes you feel very insecure."

He has lived in the area for 40 years, 27 in his current house, and never thought it would come to this.

"It's bad. Almost everyone has a grow-op [horror] story to tell."

(BuzzNote: I propose a gated community in which every house is required to have a grow op. [Just like in early America!] If the quality and quantity of your harvest falls below a certain standard you'll be required to roll joints for everyone else until you clean up your act. )

[WNB]

Eh, I wouldn't want to live next to someone who bought the house for the sole purpose of growing pot, either. But maybe these people should take a hint that if pot wasn't illegal, it wouldn't have to be produced in this way.

[Zilos]

The covenant, which may not be legally enforceable, is only a proposal at this stage. Mr. Coughlin plans to put it to the public at an open house in Promontory Park on Saturday. But, he says, he thinks people in Chilliwack will go for it.

Lets hope it's not enforceable, hopefully some of those growers show up at the public meeting, though im sure anyone who voices against the proposal, will probly be suspected as having a grow-op, and will be watched closely, or narced on by someone from the meeting.

[Puffer]

Hmmm! Being on the inside of a gated community sounds kind of like being in prison, to me. Poetic justice?

[TEDMOR]

This article raises some interesting questions. I am not as familiar with the justice system in Canada, but I wonder how this would work. Under the current system, if a neighbor is unhappy about a known grow-op, why aren't the police called? Could it be there is not enough evidence for police to get a warrant and search? Could it be the party with the grow-op would have a minimal penalty and keep the house, and possibly retaliate for being turned in? Do they fear the grow-ops and feel the police can or won't do anything about them?

If so, then how would this work in practice under the new system? Would a neighbor sneak into the house and take pictures? Then call the police? Could they then be charged with trespassing? If the house is not seized by the government but by the developer, wouldn't he have to file in Civil Court? Couldn't the owner of the house hire a lawyer and contest it, based on the facts of the case or the legality of the provision? I seriously doubt a private party could seize a house as easily as the government could. I suspect trying to do this in a single case would cost a great deal. Wouldn't it make more sense to use zoning or development convenants to make neighbors keep their property up to a certain standard?

With that said, I believe this story provides another good example of why we would be better off with legalization. A development could still use covenants to ban Marijuana gardens, just as some now use them to ban farm animals, and responsible adults could get Marijuana from a licensed supplier in a regulated market. I am suspicious of too much regulation, but it would certainly be better than the system we have now. I guess my choice would be to treat it more or less like alcohol or tobacco, with some regulation to assure quality and some age restrictions. But if the regulation were too strict it would create a new set of social problems. Exploring this point, however, is beyond the point of this post.