ST TAR
ALDERGROVE Your Hometown Community Newspaper for over 56 Years
| Thursday, January 29, 2015
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Barwick contender for BC’s Top Athlete! Athlete!
Page 14: Kodiaks headed for hockey playoffs
PAGE 14
Walk for Memories Off to Healthy Start
Pot-grow odor law passed by Township By DAN FERGUSON Aldergrove Star
HARRY HUNT PHOTO
Abbotsford City and Langley Township mayors Henry Braun and Jack Froese helped this year’s Walk for Memories honorees, Susan and Boyd Wylie, cut the start ribbon. Story, page 3.
House fire deemed suspicious Aldergrove Star
A large fire that destroyed a home and garage in rural north Aldergrove early Friday morning is being deemed suspicious, said Langley RCMP. Langley RCMP along with Fortis BC had been at the home the day before ( Jan. 21) to investigate a suspected illegal grow op there, said police. Fortis found the gas line had been illegally diverted and police were trying to contact the owner of the home but didn’t enter that day.
A fire erupted the next night, destroying both the home and a detached garage, located about 10 feet (three metres) from the house. Township fire crews were called out to the rural property at 274 Street and 43 Avenue at about 1:15 a.m. Friday. By the time they arrived both buildings were fully engulfed, with flames shooting 40 to 50 feet in the air, said Township of Langley assistant fire chief Pat Walker. Abbotsford fire also arrived at the scene and assisted in the beginning.
Because of the home’s remote location, fire crews brought water by tanker from a source located about two and a half kilometres away. On Friday morning, the fire department was referring calls about the blaze to the Langley RCMP. Cpl. Holly Marks said the cause of the fire is still under investigation but the house was empty at the time of the fire and nobody was injured. The home is a total loss and police continue their investigation.
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A bylaw that fines smelly marijuana grow-ops $500 a day won final approval from Langley Township council Monday night ( Jan. 26). The vote was unanimous. Township staff estimate there are 600 small legal marijuana grow-ops in Langley operating under designated-person production licences. Those licences were supposed to be phased out in favour of large commercial grow-ops in April, but that has been held up by a Supreme Court challenge. The Township is hoping to avoid a legal challenge of its new odor law because it falls within a municipality’s power over nuisances. A staff report says the Township has a legal opinion that the new regulation “is unlikely to raise a constitutional challenge” because it doesn’t ban growers, but only requires filters. Council also gave preliminary approval Monday to a business licence fee that will require the big commercial grow ops to pay $5,000 a year when they begin operating. “I think this is the best option that we have [to regulate grow ops]” Councillor Charlie Fox said. “We’ll see how it goes.” The fee will only apply to the growers, not the consumers of medicinal marijuana. Businesses that pay licence fees are subject to inspection by the municipality. The Township is unable to forbid medicinal grow ops altogether because they operate under federal authority and the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC), the provincial agency that regulates farmland, has ruled that pot crops are “consistent with the definition of farm use … and as such is an allowed use.” There are at least 19 proposed commercial grow-ops in the Township, most of them located on farmland.